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Director - Phil Morrison
Writer -
Angus MacLachlan
Director of photography
- Peter Donahue
Editor -
Joe
Klotz
Music
- Yo La Tengo
Production designer
- David Doernberg
Producer -
Mindy Goldberg and Mike S. Ryan
Sony Pictures Classics. 107 minutes. Rated
R for sexual situations,
nudity, and strong language.
STARRING: Amy
Adams (Ashley), Embeth Davidtz (Madeleine), Ben McKenzie (Johnny),
Alessandro Nivola (George), Frank Hoyt Taylor (David Wark), Celia Weston
(Peg) and Scott Wilson (Eugene).
When filmmakers journey to the American South, they enter dangerous
territory. Far too often, they aren’t prepared to encounter such a rich,
unusual culture, and they end up painting cruel caricatures.
So it is a bit unnerving when director Phil Morrison takes us on a road
trip from Chicago art studios to North Carolina baby showers in Junebug.
Is this going to be just another movie exploiting Southern eccentricity
for our entertainment?
Not at all. Junebug is, at times, hilarious, but it is also a deeply
affecting drama about a complicated family that finds meaning, hope, and
healing in Christian faith and traditional family values. We haven’t
seen such a thoughtful illustration of religious faith since Robert
Duvall’s The Apostle. Nor have we seen many performances as indelibly
endearing as the one delivered here by Amy Adams.
But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.
The film begins as a sophisticated New York art dealer named Madeleine
(Embeth Davidtz of Schindler’s List) falls in love with a North Carolina
boy named George (Alessandro Nivola). Pursuing a contract with a
reclusive artist, she ends up staying with George’s family, and the
ensuing culture clash progresses from comical to devastating. Madeline,
who considers herself professional, stylish, and superior, is humbled to
discover the emptiness of her own routine, and the rich resources to be
found in family and faith.
Madeline learns a lot from George himself, as he springs into action to
help his family in crisis; from his imperious mother Peg; his quiet,
patient father Eugene; and even from his troubled, jittery brother
Johnny.
But most of her lessons come from Johnny’s very pregnant wife Ashley
(Adams). Ashley is the intellectual equivalent of an eight-year-old, but
her longings, her love, and her optimism overcome anything in her path,
even Madeline’s sophisticated skepticism.
From the pregnant silences at the dinner table, to the nuances of
Baptist-churchgoer vocabulary, to “colorful” displays of Southern
imagination, these people are three-dimensional and compelling,
enlivened by an artist of affection and vision. The slow pace, the quiet
moments, the empty spaces — they allow us to absorb some of the haunting
history, the pain, and the power of this place. Morrison’s next film
can’t come soon enough.
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