(This review may contain spoilers).
Having not read the book of this, I can only really judge it based on the movie… but I felt the movie was really good. It was very emotional in parts, which made it hard to watch certain scenes… but I’m glad I gave it a chance, despite it not being part of my usual genres.
I liked Sophia as a character, though I would have liked to learn about her family – they didn’t really seem to be mentioned apart from in passing. It was good to see Luke’s relationship with his mother and I liked his character, as well as the interactions Sophia and Luke had with each other.
I liked seeing the parallels of Luke and Sophia’s relationship with Ira and Ruth’s. I especially liked seeing the friendship that formed between Sophia and Ira. There were some really sweet scenes throughout the movie that took place between the two of them.
I felt that the movie did do a good job showcasing just how dangerous bull riding can be… even if it is exciting to watch if you don’t have a personal connection to said rider. There was a stark contrast between how Sophia reacted the first time she saw Luke riding the bull and later on.
I felt that the use of voice-overs worked really well, though I wasn’t sure how much detail Ira had gone into in his letters to Ruth. I did also notice a few continuity errors. Nothing too major… but still things I noticed.
There were a lot of scenes in this movie that affected me a lot emotionally, both in the flashbacks and in the present time. I thought the actors did a good job playing the characters and playing off each other.
This movie did a really good job of drawing me in and causing me to become emotionally invested in the plot and the characters. I liked the ending of the movie, too, and felt it fit in well with the rest of the storyline and the characters.
Ink of Blood 