Leaves of Grass had the potential to be a great comedy given the cast but falls flat due to script problems. The film follows Bill Kincaid (Edward Norton), a highly-sought after college professor who is tricked into believing his identical twin brother Brady (also played by Norton) has died. When he heads back to his hometown, a place he has meant to leave behind permanently, he realizes his brother is not actually dead but wants his help to get him out of the drug business. Norton does a fine job as both characters and Keri Russell offers a good enough supporting role. However, a lot of jokes fall flat, some side plots are never given resolutions, and there are too many predictable moments. There was promise but in the need it just couldn't succeed. *1/2

Edward Norton is a delight in dual roles--twins, one a clean-living, sharp-minded Brown classics professor, the other a hotheaded, pot-growing Okie, reunited after years of estrangement. I wish actor/writer/director Tim Blake Nelson had just told a story of familial estrangement; one brother learning to embrace his past, the other maturing. Instead Nelson overburdens his film with a half dozen other storylines. First, foremost, and least convincing is the crime storyline, involving a Tulsa-based Jewish mobster (Richard Dreyfuss) and several unexpected, brutal murders. It aims for Fargo/Burn After Reading-style Coens, but lands closer to the post-Coens flatness of, say, The Ice Harvest. There's also a sweet, but distracting and undernourished love story between Ivy League Norton and a local played by Keri Russell. There are good ideas here and there, as well as a few big laughs, but other than Norton's performance, there's not much here to warrant a hearty recommendation.

C+

Sure, this is shaggier than some high-end studio production, but what it lacks in polish it makes up for with good acting, interesting family dynamics, and an intentionally loopy plot. When the mobster heavy threatens Edward Norton with a menorah, it should be clear that the whole enterprise is something of a lark. And there is something very fundamentally entertaining about watching a gifted actor playing identical twins (or even a competent actor like Armie Hammer).