This is a soft spoken, slow paced documentary, edited, filmed and narrated by Ross McElwee. I'm a non-smoker, but what made me curious about this piece was that the filmmaker's first name is the same as mine. Yes, I know, that's so superficial.

Ross pieces together shots, memories, and an on-going personal inquiry into the potential connection between a semi-classic Hollywood Movie ("Bright Leaf" starring Gary Cooper) and great grandfather McElwee's big tobacco tragic heritage. Though the film dabbles in the murky waters of a state (North Carolina) somewhat conflicted over a crop that feeds its economy while causing people to die, the real story is less defined. In fact, the meat and potatoes of this production aren't meat and potatoes at all; the central focus is as haphazard as a meandering walk through a southern valley guided only by Ross' introspection.

Starting very tediously slow, the documentary grows on you, reels you in, perhaps like smoking itself. As Ross says, "trance-like, seemingly suspending time." But, perhaps like smoking, the reel finds difficulty quitting. There's a very emotional moment with a woman playing an apropos, bluesy, folks, tune on banjo. I would have liked to hear that entire piece play right on over into the credits. Though there are moments after that worth viewing, the drive is lost.