It is interesting to chart our vision of what the post-apocalypse might be. The shortage is never the same, but the outcome always is: we run out of something, people get desperate, and then the rest of the movie happens.
R.T. Thorne's 40 Acres follows this formula, with the shortage being food. The film takes place sometime in the near future, 14 years after all the animals in the world died and some 10 years after the resulting civil war fought over the remains of the resources.
Hailey Freeman (Danielle Deadwyler) is an ex-soldier and the descendant of freed Black slaves who migrated to rural Canada after the American Civil War. She has a 40-acre property in a world where farmland is among the most precious of assets. She and her family grow crops, scavenge for supplies, and ruthlessly defend their property against the occasional bands of raiders who decide to target them.
The setup is excellent, and the film wastes no time setting up how well-off the Freemans are. In the very first scene, they defend against an attack, with daughter Raine (Leenah Robinson), an expert sniper, finding the pink mist from an attic window, as her son Manny (Kataem O'Connor) and partner Galen (Michael Greyeyes) hunt interlopers in a cornfield. Their other daughters, Danis (Jaeda LeBlanc) and Cookie (Haile Amare), also get in on the action, with the latter eventually being scolded not for being too young to join the fray and killing a man, but for wasting bullets to do it.
The rest of the film proceeds as expected: the Freemans maintain radio contact with a network of nearby farms, which start to go silent one by one. At the same time, a mysterious young woman named Dawn (Milcania Diaz-Rojas) shows up and captures Manny's eye because they're both young and attractive, and he's never seen anyone his own age who wasn't his sister before. Eventually, he goes out into the wilderness at her behest and attracts a group of men who are interested in an alternate food source.
The film doesn't break the mould in any real respects, but it is the kind of project where the performances can elevate the premise, and Danielle Deadwyler demonstrates why she's one of the most compelling performers working today. Hailey Freeman is a road-weary woman desperate to keep her family safe from the dangers of the world, and her portrayal of the tug of war between letting Manny lead his life and keeping him safe is subtle, nuanced and relatable. She also happens to be a total badass, handling a gun like a seasoned pro, and she has an absolutely brutal knife fight toward the end. If there is any justice in Hollywood, she'll be an action star by next year.
Michael Greyeyes is his reliable self, playing the good cop to Deadwyler's bad with the kids, and scrounging desperately for herbs and spices to make their mostly corn diet a little more palatable. The film has many funny scenes and he's at the heart of most of them, and he has ample opportunity to speak Cree, which refreshingly, everyone understands.
The kids offer good performances as well, with O'Connor having the most to do, but Robinson clearly having the most fun as the rebellious, gun-happy Raine. She is absolutely magnetic on screen and has one of the most satisfying moments in the film's climax. I'm sure we'll see more of her in the future.
Director and co-writer Thorn has a skillful directorial eye. There are some budget constraints that are a little frustrating at times, but Thorne makes the most of them and comes up with creative solutions to make sure the point gets across.
The script also balances the heavier material with the light quite well. However, there are some concerning unanswered questions about the production itself that should be noted (namely that the are claims the production left several bills from their Sudbury shoot unpaid).
The limitations of the film (and a couple of story choices toward the end) hold 40 Acres back from being truly great, but it's still a terrific glimpse into a future that hopefully never comes to pass.