40 ACRES was a fallback option when I couldn’t make it to THE LIBRARIANS. Which is no shade on the film, I had other options, it has an interesting premise “post-apocalyptic siege thriller”, and it has a start, Danielle Deadwyler, I was eager to see. Alas it proved to be a mixed bag, but at least a well intentioned one.
40 ACRES tells the story of a mixed family ekeing out survival in a post-apocalyptic future. Not a zombie apocalypse, but more of a environmental collapse ala INTERSTELLAR with people fighting over limited resources and a farm being the most valuable thing one can own. The Freeman farm, run by ex-soldier Hailey Freeman (Danielle Deadwyler), hums with military precision and discipline and is one of the last secure farms in a world that’s falling apart with roving bands of marauders, including some cannibals, roaming the countryside. However, all is not right at home as Hailey’s son Emanuel (Kataem O’Connor) is approaching manhood, being a rebellious teenager, and maybe starting to wonder if there’s a rewarding future for him, maybe involving an outside woman, or if he’s going to be stuck taking order from his by-the-book mom and living with his sisters.
It’s too the movie’s and writer/director R.T. Thorne’s credit that the characters are well defined enough that the conflicts appear inevitable and you understand where everyone is coming from. And honestly, there are two worthwhile stories here. While post-apocalyptic stories are a reliable source of entertainment, I don’t think I’ve seen a mother-son story wedded to that. 40 ACRES earns points for ambition, if nothing else.
And points for diverse casting. Danielle Deadwyler has earned plenty of plaudits for earlier roles in THE HARDER THEY FALL, TILL, and THE PIANO LESSON. She gets to stretch her action chops in addition to her dramatic chops here being fit and lean, and not someone to be underestimated despite her size, and always being the most intense person in the room. An intensity matched by being an uncompromising head of a household, who thinks trust and kindness will get her family killed, not without reason, and an intense focus in combat and an unbending ability to push on through pain. 40 ACRES is a whole level above exploitation fare just because of her performance. Kataem O’Connor is effective in his role, and native actor Michael Greyeyes as the stepfather Galen manages to be a warm presence while also being completely believable as someone the no nonsense Hailey would let in. The family dynamics manage to keep the film engaging.
And, honestly, I thought that was the saving grace. The siege aspects of the film take a long time to come and there never feels like much of a ticking clock. We’re told that other farms are disappearing, but we see no effects on the Freeman farm because of its very isolated nature. Thus, when the third act rolls around it feels more like an initial escalation rather than a climax. The film attempts to merge the outer and inner conflicts of the film, but between the running around and shooting, it doesn’t really lead to twin climaxes. And although the film is well framed and shot, the action, outside some hand to hand combat, isn’t that memorable. There’s a lot of shooting at something off-screen with bodies then rolling into frame. And very little to distinguish the numerous antagonists, who might all be a nameless bunch of zombies for all the difference it makes. “We’re more alike than you think” is rolled out, perhaps as a comedic beat, but the outside physical threat never really feels like an actual threat to this family. It’s wonderful that there’s more to the film than simply genre thrills, but it’s unbalanced in favor of the internal squabbling and the genre thrills aren’t all that thrilling.
That’s the most disappointing thing here. All the ingredients are there. And individual scenes and ideas pop intermittently. But, it never really comes together as more than the sum of its parts. It’s a real movie that’s better than most of the movies that pop up on Netflix to big viewership, but it never really works as a superior drama or genre film and it’s kind of dragged down by not nailing either half.
The 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival runs from April 24, 2025 until May 8, 2025. 40 ACRES plays once more at 8:30 PM on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at the Oriental Threatre. Tickets to 40 ACRES and many other films can be purchased at MKEFILM.ORG.
