How on earth did anyone think this would be good?

The movie WAS good. If you're into historical films. Times were so different back then. She was left by her daddy and having to take care of her younger sister. She may not have been a rookie in using the gun, and doesn't have great aim yet. She also didn't shoot a lot of times because back then, they had gun powder instead of ready to go bullets. She had to be careful when she used her shot. As for the soldiers, they were just messed up from war and that's what men would do a lot. Rape, kill, & drink. Sorry you didn't enjoy this one.

And as for all the soldiers at the end and to whether or not they get recognized as women, that's left for your own imagination to decide.

I loved this, good acting (Brit), beautifully shot, interesting story. I'm always cautious of people calling certain movies boring. If you never saw an art film or anything remotely close to it, if you have no appreciation for slower independent movies that don't follow traditional narratives or simply are a bit different, i can only feel sorry for you.
On the other hand i see so many people get orgasms while writing Marvel movie reviews, like every single one of them actually deserves all those overblown 8.x ratings here. Gimme a break. Some people need to open their minds and start critically evaluating stuff that actually doesn't deserve the accolades, high ratings etc - 90% of the mindless popcorn trite, by the big hollywood studios...i mean if you're going to pick apart the story, then every single Marvel movie (make that almost every blockbuster out there, which i'm sure many of you loved) should be trashed due to the incredible stupidity in every single one of them, all the cliches, all the wooden acting, all the bad scripts (no CGI can save that). But somehow people don't see those problems in them at all, they get away with any kind of serious criticism. Because they're "pure entertainment"? WTF. Yet of all the stuff made, smaller movies like The Keeping Room get picked apart and scrutinized to the last detail (and i could find a dozen of other examples of independent cinema which gets trashed here on imdb, i could make a big list of all the criminally underrated independent movies on imdb made in the last decade or so). And don't get me even started on less obvious examples, like Spielberg or even lately Scorcese who get away with it. You people don't impress me, where is this same kind of harsh criteria for your beloved popcorn flicks?...

I had issues with some of these things also but you can't just pre-emptively kill someone, especially a Union soldier.

Her first biggest missed opportunity was on her own property. My guess is that back then, like now, soldiers, policemen, and such are given a lot of license when it comes to civilians. They would be prosecuted for killing them.


(Go to a review site if you don't want spoilers. This is a DISCUSSION board.)