A noticeably mole-free Braydon Denney plays a young Abe in The Better Angels, which is set in the raw, wooded Indiana of the early 1800s.
Abraham Lincoln's unexceptional face would be appropriate for the penny, the Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg said in 1909. The one-cent piece was, he said, "the coin of the common folk from whom he came and to whom he belongs."
Sandburg's The Prairie Years is a source behind The Better Angels, a gorgeous look at the raw, wooded Indiana of the early 1800s and a dreamy study of the boy Lincoln who was destined to leave it behind. The film by Terrence Malick's protégé, A.J. Edwards, is in black and white, with ground-hugging camera angles that look up to the low autumnal sun.
There is era-evocative narration, but the dialogue itself is sparse. Often the visually exquisite scenes are flashback-like, but there's nothing from which to flash back – that's all there is. We see humanity, mind and a work ethic in formation, shaped by a taciturn disciplinarian of a father (Jason Clarke), a preacher, a talent-spotting teacher, and a mother and stepmother who foster compassion.
A noticeably mole-free Braydon Denney is young Abe, who wrestled above his weight, was a fool for the maypole and as honest as the Daniel Day-Lewis is long. The absorbent little fellow was also a thinker and a quiet watcher – penny for his thoughts, you betcha.
Brad Wheeler