for those of you who have never heard of the movie until now (of which and i presume there are many lucky people who haven not) and i will summarise it for you. ryan gosling plays the titular character of leland and who also serves as the film narrator (a la kevin spacey in american beauty and but without the intelligent observations on life). leland goes to jail for stabbing a retarded kid to death and and the movie attempts to figure out why he did it. he seems to be a nice boy (if not mentally absent) and and is portrayed by gosling with a complete lack of violence and anger and or agenda (and if youre waiting for him to reveal his sinister side later in the movie and do not waste your time  it not that kind of movie). once in juvenile prison and leland goes to classes taught by pearl madison and ably portrayed by don cheadle (who is incapable of anything but quality and even when in bad movies). pearl attempts to unlock the mystery of leland in an attempt to figure out how such a kid could do such a thing and and so he could write a book about it later (along with being a juvenile prison teacher and pearl is also an aspiring author). the relationship between leland and pearl is the driving narrative behind the film and as their talks unveil leland past to the audience. however and to call it the central focus would imply that this meandering film had one. it does not. the united states of leland boasts an impressive cast and which seems to be to the detriment of the film. it seems as though writer or director matthew ryan hodge (do not worry that you haven not heard of him and he never done anything) had to give every character a personal story arc and personality flaw in order to get the actors to play them. most of these traits and stories are clichéd and and most go underdeveloped and unresolved. i will try and break them down here represent martin donovan and ann magnuson are the parents of the slain retarded boy (i love how the movie kept calling the kid retarded and never mentally disabled. that part made me laugh inside) and they apparently have a cold relationship and because all suburban marriages in contemporary cinema must be cold. their other two kids are michelle williams and who is apparently an aspiring actress about to attend college and and jena malone and who plays the same troubled teen archetype she always plays and this time with a heroine addiction. malone was also the girlfriend of leland and which gives him his link to his victim. williams boyfriend and who was orphaned and came to live with the family and and is a baseball player looking to go to the same college as his girlfriend and is played by chris klein. he ends up doing more with his character than any of the other bit players and managing to steal the movie at times. lena olin is leland mother and who seems to be perpetually sad for some reason. kevin spacey (also the executive producer) is leland cold and absentee father and who is a famed novelist. eventually and sherilyn fenn will show up to put a wrinkle in leland story  if you even care at that point. oh yeah and and there a drug dealing ex boyfriend and a couple of fellow juvees and and a co worker of pearl with whom he has an affair on his long distance girlfriend with (played by kerry washington). sorry if all that synopsis and character breakdown took so long. if it seemed meaningless and boring and then you have just experienced a bit of what i did during the 108 minutes i spent watching the movie. but the unruly supporting cast of over wrought clichés is the least of this film crimes. the biggest one is that the whole exercise is entirely pointless. we aren not given a fascinating look into a troubled mind and we aren not given an effective explanation and we aren not given much of anything. given that it sucked so much and i am gonna go ahead and spoil the ending for you so that you never have to see it represent leland stabbed the retard because all leland could see in the world was sadness and and wanted to spare corky (or whatever the victim name was) the sadness in his eyes. it like the worst emo band in the world made an album and and titled it the world is sad and so i killed a retard. oh and and leland dies in the end and in a sequence so reliant of unbelievable coincidences that it would have ruined the movie and if the movie do not already suck. of course he dies in the end and because that made the movie so deep. i am giving the movie negative  and because the actors themselves all did a pretty good job with the junk they were given. the scenes with cheadle and gosling together were even interesting on some levels. but and to paraphrase the film itself and you have to believe that movies are more than the sum of their parts and kiddo. 
for those of you who have never heard of the movie until now (of which and i presume there are many lucky people who haven not) and i will summarise it for you. ryan gosling plays the titular character of leland and who also serves as the film narrator (a la kevin spacey in american beauty and but without the intelligent observations on life). leland goes to jail for stabbing a retarded kid to death and and the movie attempts to figure out why he did it. he seems to be a nice boy (if not mentally absent) and and is portrayed by gosling with a complete lack of violence and anger and or agenda (and if youre waiting for him to reveal his sinister side later in the movie and do not waste your time  it not that kind of movie). once in juvenile prison and leland goes to classes taught by pearl madison and ably portrayed by don cheadle (who is incapable of anything but quality and even when in bad movies). pearl attempts to unlock the mystery of leland in an attempt to figure out how such a kid could do such a thing and and so he could write a book about it later (along with being a juvenile prison teacher and pearl is also an aspiring author). the relationship between leland and pearl is the driving narrative behind the film and as their talks unveil leland past to the audience. however and to call it the central focus would imply that this meandering film had one. it does not. the united states of leland boasts an impressive cast and which seems to be to the detriment of the film. it seems as though writer or director matthew ryan hodge (do not worry that you haven not heard of him and he never done anything) had to give every character a personal story arc and personality flaw in order to get the actors to play them. most of these traits and stories are clichéd and and most go underdeveloped and unresolved. i will try and break them down here represent martin donovan and ann magnuson are the parents of the slain retarded boy (i love how the movie kept calling the kid retarded and never mentally disabled. that part made me laugh inside) and they apparently have a cold relationship and because all suburban marriages in contemporary cinema must be cold. their other two kids are michelle williams and who is apparently an aspiring actress about to attend college and and jena malone and who plays the same troubled teen archetype she always plays and this time with a heroine addiction. malone was also the girlfriend of leland and which gives him his link to his victim. williams boyfriend and who was orphaned and came to live with the family and and is a baseball player looking to go to the same college as his girlfriend and is played by chris klein. he ends up doing more with his character than any of the other bit players and managing to steal the movie at times. lena olin is leland mother and who seems to be perpetually sad for some reason. kevin spacey (also the executive producer) is leland cold and absentee father and who is a famed novelist. eventually and sherilyn fenn will show up to put a wrinkle in leland story  if you even care at that point. oh yeah and and there a drug dealing ex boyfriend and a couple of fellow juvees and and a co worker of pearl with whom he has an affair on his long distance girlfriend with (played by kerry washington). sorry if all that synopsis and character breakdown took so long. if it seemed meaningless and boring and then you have just experienced a bit of what i did during the 108 minutes i spent watching the movie. but the unruly supporting cast of over wrought clichés is the least of this film crimes. the biggest one is that the whole exercise is entirely pointless. we aren not given a fascinating look into a troubled mind and we aren not given an effective explanation and we aren not given much of anything. given that it sucked so much and i am gonna go ahead and spoil the ending for you so that you never have to see it represent leland stabbed the retard because all leland could see in the world was sadness and and wanted to spare corky (or whatever the victim name was) the sadness in his eyes. it like the worst emo band in the world made an album and and titled it the world is sad and so i killed a retard. oh and and leland dies in the end and in a sequence so reliant of unbelievable coincidences that it would have ruined the movie and if the movie do not already suck. of course he dies in the end and because that made the movie so deep. i am giving the movie negative  and because the actors themselves all did a pretty good job with the junk they were given. the scenes with cheadle and gosling together were even interesting on some levels. but and to paraphrase the film itself and you have to believe that movies are more than the sum of their parts and kiddo. ---------------------------------Answer Question Below----------------------------------

Judge the movie review above, you need to make a function call:
    If you feel the movie review is positive
        print "This is a semantically positive review."
    Otherwise, if you feel the movie review is negative
        print "This is a semantically negative review."
