This movie is based on a novel written by Philip Roth. In present day, Nathan (David Strathairn shows up at his high school reunion, and runs into his old best friend, Jerry (Rupert Evans), and they get to talking about Jerry’s brother Seymour (Ewan McGregor), also known as “Swede”. The movie then travels back in time to decades earlier, as Jerry tells Nathan the story of what happened to Swede and his family.

Seymour had met a beautiful woman, Dawn (Jennifer Connelly), they marry, and have a loving daughter, Merry (who is played by different actresses at different ages, first by Ocean James, then by Hannah Nordberg, then lastly as a teenager and beyond by Dakota Fanning). Merry has almost always had a stutter, but by the time she reaches the age where she is played by Nordberg, signs start to appear that she is troubled. By the time she is a teenager, she is a rebellious and disillusioned by the government, the war in Vietnam, the attacks against African Americans, and she becomes a radical.

She is soon suspected by the FBI of committing a horrifying crime and has disappeared. Seymour and Dawn’s marriage becomes strained as Dawn is eager to move on with their lives while Seymour becomes obsessed with finding their daughter. Thats all I can really say without ruining the movie for you- it’s basically a movie about a father’s love and how far it goes.

I generally enjoy movies like this, where it starts in present day and takes you back to a different time period in the past. With that said, for me personally, I think this is a one-time movie. It’s not one of the best movies I have seen, but it’s not horrible either- I would put this one as in the middle of that range. I will leave it up to you, whether this is one that you might want to see or not!