The film illustrates how the most powerful and welcome stabilizing forces in human life - history, family, geography - can turn so easily into deadly traps.

A strong sense of place emerges, if not a consuming narrative, as the filmmaker strains to connect a 1970s coming-of-age story to historical records and bigger thematic arcs - namely, bloodlines and bloodshed in a rural community.

An overcooked adaptation of a novel by Ron Rash.

"'The World Made Straight' is essentially a poor man's 'Out of the Furnace'... Still, it's a memorable spotlight for the always-mesmerizing Minka Kelly."