i LOVE this movie.
...and probably for a great many of the reasons why so many of you HATE it. I love it's un-centered manner... it's least believable aspects are it's best, if you ask me. and, it NEEDS to be said, it's really quite unique (and at turns fantastically beautiful and battle-wrought and devastated) setting. it's a plain-as-all out southern fable, with a magical lady shaman of a deep southern wood, an old well that, with the right tools and know-how, will tell your future. I love that kind of thing - especially since most.. sigh... "historical dramas" are so horrifically prim and proper and, well... historical. Of course these things didn't happen, nor could they ever - that's what a fable is for.
Anyway, I'm watching it now, and I just thought I'd share a little bit of my feelings towards this particular gem. (If you're rolling your eyes because you simply CANNOT believe how corny it is, or how oscar-grubbing it all seems... well sir, permit me to say you might be reading it all wrong.)