Set in the competitive world of modern agriculture, ambitious Henry Whipple wants his rebellious son Dean to help expand his family’s farming empire. However, Dean has his sights set on becoming a professional race car driver. When a high-stakes investigation into their business is exposed, father and son are pushed into an unexpected situation that threatens the family's entire livelihood.
Like the small farmers forced to kowtow to corporations, writer and director Ramin Bahrani chickens out. His melodramatic script reduces a global conflict to a Grain Belt "Glengarry Glen Ross."
– Joe Williams,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
16 May 2013
rotten:
Written and played with a little more subtlety, Henry and his contradictions could have been fascinating; as it is, "At Any Price" keeps us at a distance, gazing at characters who never quite come to life.
– Moira MacDonald,
Seattle Times,
16 May 2013
rotten:
Bahrani seems less interested in getting at the heart of a man who has sold his soul than he is in showing how the hard facts of modern farming have literally and figuratively changed the landscape.
– Steven Rea,
Philadelphia Inquirer,
17 May 2013
rotten:
Bahrani fills the frame with weathered faces and "At Any Price" feels like it unfolds in something close to the real America. But he wants to give us larger-than-life drama, and his strengths are life-sized.
– Ty Burr,
Boston Globe,
24 May 2013
rotten:
The disappointment and malaise of a modern farmer's life comes through, but almost as an afterthought. As Bahrani makes clear, it's worth a more focused film.