Google
 

JUNEBUG / Phil Morrison (2005)

February 18th, 2008 by Scott Marks

junebug.jpg

JUNEBUG (2005)
Directed by Phil Morrison
Written by Angus Maclachlan
Starring: Embeth Davidtz, Allessandro Nivola, Amy Adams and Ben McKenzie
Running time: 107 mins.
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Rating: ★★★☆☆

“Junebug” starts on stock footage of North Carolinians yelling in the mountains. Screaming is the ideal forward to a film that examines both the abyss between North and South and the inner-workings of an uncommunicative family that reunites for one week.

Estranged son and brother George (Allessandro Nivola) is persuaded by Madeleine (the wonderful Embeth Davidtz), his older, British-born wife of six months, to make a side trip so that she may meet her in-laws. They’ll be in the Carolinas anyway while Madeleine courts backwoods painter David Wark (Frank Hoyt Taylor). She believes Wark’s “outsider” art will lure wealthy collectors to her Chicago gallery.

Their arrival finds a sulking mother (Celia Weston), reticent father (Scott Wilson) and Johnny (Ben McKenzie), George’s brooding, underachieving younger brother. Their floating-on-eggshells reserve prompts cauterized silence during several early scenes. Not since Ingmar Bergman in the sixties has a movie theater been so quiet.

Johnny’s very pregnant wife Ashley (newcomer Amy Adams in a remarkable performance) is everything but mute: guileless, eager to please and, in spite of nonstop talking jags, unable to make a point. Perhaps this is why she is the only member of the family to embrace sophisticated, but shallow Madeline. (Could she intuitively sense a fellow toenail biter?) Ms. Adams star-making performance brings life and dimension to a poster child for insignificance.

Never having seen an episode of “The O.C.,” I can’t imagine it calls for much acting. “Junebug” does, and McKenzie’s transition from small screen stud to indie ensemble player comes as a pleasant surprise. Unable to grasp the pulled-tab concept of a video cassette, Johnny fails to record a show he knows would thrill Ashley. This fleeting thought of his wife, the single moment in the story where he acts selflessly, shines through McKenzie’s depiction of Johnny’s inability to express his love via VHS.

Director Phil Morrison depicts Ashley’s sexual desperation in a manner I don’t recall ever seeing. Hopelessly in love with Johnny, yet terrified by his emotional retreat, she masturbates to a snapshot of the couple in happier times. Reality became Ashley’s fantasy soon after high school ended and married life began. This moment of painfully honest tenderness may cause even hardcore voyeurs to respectfully avert their gaze.

Madeleine’s relationship with Wark examines the age old question of separating the artist from their art. Wark is a mumbling crackpot well schooled in religious diatribes (with a minor in antisemitism) who finds his “voice” on canvas. His rustic battle collages are reminiscent of childhood Colorform’s sets, only these come equipped with anatomically incorrect renditions of Gen. Lee and boast good ol’ boy titles like “Ni–er Uprising.” With prosperity just out of reach, is Madeline’s personal integrity worth compromising for gallery gold?

Between Madeleine’s professional conundrum and a familial snub she must reconcile dwells still another timeworn plot gap in a film that refuses to simply document or, even worse, shrug off cliches. “Junebug” confronts and dissects them head on. Sometimes there’s an art to redirecting the obvious.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Filed Under DVD, Reviews