The Iron Orchard

Though there are some well-framed shots from cinematographer Mathieu Plainfossé, the script from Gerry De Leon and director Ty Roberts is lifeless, covered in a layer of dust that the cast can't rouse it from.

What it lacks is a distinct perspective; for all its period details and solid acting, the underlying message about this time in Texas oil history - that it was right, that it was wrong, that it was necessary - is lacking.

Seemingly nostalgic for a period when West Texas roughnecks settled scores with baseball bats and laid pipe with pickaxes, this lovingly made homage to avarice feels strangely limp. Instead of gushing, it trickles.

Lane Garrison propels the film with his vibrant performance.

As competently put together as this movie is, it imparted to me no sense of a higher calling, and thus left me unmoved.

The musical score is overcooked, the cast underpowered, and the dialogue something of a mishmash...

If writer-director Ty Roberts doesn't exactly hit pay dirt, neither does he leave viewers completely empty-handed.

Thin but likable account of an oil wildcatter's rise and fall. Strong production values help offset cast and script issues.

A curious soap opera that nobody outside of Texas will give a [crap] about.

It's obvious director Ty Roberts thinks he has an epic in his hands, but with underwritten characters and relationships, second-rate dialogue and an oil story that goes nowhere interesting, The Iron Orchard strikes nothing of substance.