Daniel Day Lewis is one of the greatest actors of his generation. His talent, craft, and commitment to his roles are second to none. Nominated for Best Actor five times by The Academy Awards taking home 3 golden trophies. For "My Left Foot (1990)", "There Will be Blood (2008)" and "Lincoln (2008)". One of his lesser known roles was in the small independent film "The Ballad of Jack & Rose (2005) Directed by his wife Rebecca Miller. It's a story about the relationship between a father and daughter living off the grid on an island off the east coast.Camilla Belle plays Rose the tomboyish teenage daughter who has spent her entire life on the island, sheltered from the rest of the world. Her mom had left the family when she was only five years old and has grown up alone with her father all these years. Jack is the last remaining hold out of an old hippie commune on which they live, unable to let go of the past and his strong ideals of how a society should behave. It's1986 and land developers are starting to infiltrate his sacred island, his battle is mainly with Marty Rance (Beau Bridges). For Jack this means War, but his declining health and lack of support make it an impossible task. Nobody can stop progress. The future will come whether you like it or not.With Rose getting older, about sixteen or so, Jack is forced to think about the future and what will happen when he dies. He starts to feel guilty for keeping Rose away from modern society and what will happen to her when she's on her own. Jack does go to the mainland now and then to shack up with Kathleen (Catherine Keener), a single mother of two teen boys, who is currently living in her mothers basement. They've know each other a while but their relationship has never too serious. To hopefully benefit Rose, Jack pays Kathleen to quit her job and move her kids to live with him on the island. Jack's "experiment" is a bumpy road and awakens feeling and emotion that will change all of them. Rose's emotional state becomes a little erratic to say the least, as Kathleen has now taken over most of Jack's time, this causes her to lash out and rebel in some extreme ways. Not to mention the introduction of two teenage boys. Rodney, is a self conscious and sensitive guy who is questioning his sexuality, while Thaddeus is a skinny womanizing rebel, played by Paul Dano, who also stars opposite Daniel Day Lewis in "There Will be Blood". Jack is surprised and shocked by what he see's in Rose and has to confront the fact that nothing lasts forever and that he has to let her go and experience the world, even if she might get hurt along the way. Operating on a budget of 1.5 million, this is prime example of how a strong story along with strong actors can make a great film.

Rose lives all alone on an island with her ailing hippie father. She worships him and has incestuous feelings for him. He is still clinging to the dream that the island will remain a paradise away from the rigours of the modern world. However property developers are threatening to move in.It is refreshing to see a story of incest told from a female's perspective. However Rose remains unknowable throughout most of the movie - but then, in essence, so do the other characters, with vague and baffling dialogue. In the second half there are sudden developments that seem too convenient to do away with characters who leave the movie spread far too thin across the remaining characters and remaining runtime. The ending also seemed a bit too neat and tidy for the challenging issues the movie has raised.

'The Ballad of Jack and Rose' tells the story of an ailing radical, living a seemingly idyllic life with his daughter, but with his future threatened by the twin threats of development and his own impending mortality. The real theme is sustainability, in it's broadest sense: Jack's world is environmentally sustainable, but not emotionally or economically so. There are some good performances, and the drama stops short of providing simple resolutions as Jack and Rose look to the future. There is some idealisation, however, of their disappearing lives: writer-director Rebecca Miller gives Jack an inheritance, to free him from the need to make compromises in his life, and a disease (a weak heart) he can bear nobly. The totality of Rose's isolation from the world also seems slightly exaggerated - it seems that, in the normal run of things, that the only person she speaks to is her father. I still liked the film, however; and was moved at its end.

The acting is terrific, of course, with Daniel Day-Lewis and Catherine Keener headlining here, but the script is just all over the place and never has a real clear direction in where it's going. The beginning grabbed me and I felt like this was going to be a touching story, but as soon as Kathleen and her two sons came to move in with Jack and Rose, everything fell apart. As I said before, the acting is wonderful, the direction is smooth, and the dialogue is good, but I simply couldn't help but wonder why the film went in the direction it went. It seems that we are supposed to feel sympathetic for these characters, but both Jack and Rose are simply irrational and much too isolated for their own good. It starts well, but as a whole, this film spirals off into a world of confusion.