First Reviews: Gus Van Sant's 'The Sea of Trees' Is Cannes' First Stinker

Every year a movie emerges as Cannes favorite whipping boy. This year, the odds-on favorite for that unwanted position is Gus Van Sant's "The Sea of Trees," which was loudly booed after its first screenings. Matthew McConaughey, in a performance that puts a significant dent in the McConaissance, plays a gloomy American who makes a pilgrimage to the Japanese "suicide forest" Aokigahara (aka the Sea of Trees), where dozens of people end their lives every year. Drawing comparisons to such lowly forbears as Nicholas Sparks novels, the movie is being pummeled from every angle: as sentimental, contrived, and even offensive in its treatment of a serious subject. We'll post...

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