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Junebug (2005 - Phil Morrison)
The owner of a gallery specializing in outsider art, played by Embeth Davidtz, and her husband of six-months, played by Alessandro Nivola, journey to North Carolina where she hopes to sign a new discovery. It's also very near where he grew up and his family still lives, a family she has never met. They live in a middle class home, and they are Mom and Dad (Celia Weston & Scott Wilson), his younger brother (Ben McKenzie) and his brother's pregnant wife, Ashley (Amy Adams).
Good character piece, with very well realized details. This same plot set-up could have been turned into quirkiness for quirkiness' sake like Napoleon Dynamite or made into a gross-out would-be comedy from the Farrelly Brothers. Thankfully Junebug is an honest and introspective drama, one that treats its characters and world in a respectful and thoughtful way.
Embeth Davidtz was so memorable in Schindler's List over a decade ago now, but since then the only time I think she's been used effectively in a film was Mansfield Park (1999 - Patricia Rozema). Madeline, the well-traveled and sophisticated woman she plays here, is such a great role for her, thrown into a culture she doesn't know or understand and that she didn't even realize her husband was from. Nivola is good, and his character is the trickiest to play, leading to a great pay-off when we see who he really is underneath the conflict and contradictions near the end of the film. His brother is uncommunicative and short-tempered, working a non-challenging job, back living with his parents, with his wife about to give birth to a child he doesn't express much joy or emotion over. The real revelation of the movie is Amy Adams as Ashley. She talks a mile a minute, with responses and enthusiasms that seem better suited to an eleven-year-old girl in pigtails. But Ashley is not presented for mockery or easy laughs. Ultimately she is the best drawn of the five major characters, and the performance is amazing, endearing and layered, and her work alone makes this one to watch.
GRADE: B+
__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
Last edited by Holden Pike; 09-05-05 at 02:43 AM.
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