Movie surprise

I've seen more movies over the past year than I saw in the previous 5 or 6. Some of the movies have been wonderful (Little Miss Sunshine), some have been awful (You, Me, & Dupree), most simply have been okay. This past weekend, though, I did something I haven't done in a while: I went to a movie by myself. I used to love doing that, but it just hasn't been necessary since I started hanging out with movie people. Being alone, however, was not the most unusual part of the movie experience.

No, the strangest thing was that I'm not sure if I liked the movie or not. Now I'm not talking about a movie that leaves me indifferent -- eh, it was okay. No, this time I left the movie thinking, "Either that was a great character study or it was the stupidest thing ever." Now that I've thought more about it, I have to go with the former. I really think it was a solid, worthwhile movie. Whoops, I just realized I haven't told you which movie I saw. I saw Black Snake Moan.

Now given my (perhaps) unreasonable fear of snakes (and Mr. Jackson's recent foray into snake movies), I laughed and said I'd never go see a movie called Black Snake Moan. Then, though, I got to reading about the movie and it intrigued me. If you don't know it, the basic story is, ... Samuel L. Jackson plays a broken down former blues man who has just been abandoned by his wife. Christina Ricci plays a seriously messed up white trash slut (sorry, there's really no better description). I won't give away anything, but Jackson ends up nursing Ricci back to health and attempting to "reform" her wicked ways as well. It sounds cheesy as hell and maybe it was, but I think it worked.

First off, the movie is a wonderful example of Southern Gothic. If you like the way the "local color" is an essential part of movies such as "Deliverance" or "Slingblade" then you'll get what I mean. Even though the temperature was very comfortable in the theater, I swear I could feel the humidity and the sweat of the movie. Plus, the extensive and loud blues music in the movie really gave it a sense of verisimilitude (I like that word and rarely get to use it). Oh, about the blues stuff. There's a scene in the movie where Jackson's character plays a set at the local blues bar. As he was on the stage playing, I noticed the two guys playing with him -- it was R.L. Burnside's grandson and adopted son. I thought that was a nice touch.

So to this point, it's clear why I liked the movie so much. Why, then, was I so "undecided"? Well it was just a disturbing movie to watch. There was a good bit of brutal violence (especially early in the movie) and lots of raw sexuality and nudity. I'm no prude and I'm not going to claim I shut my eyes when Christina Ricci exposed herself, but parts of it were very hard to watch. Actually as the movie went on I had a realization. I'd never seen a less sexy movie with that much nudity. Seriously, she was so casual about sex and her body, eventually her nakedness lost its eroticism. I'm sure that was one of the "themes" of the movie, but the movie didn't insult me by knocking me over the head with that "lesson". It was just part of the story.

So once I got past the disquieting nature of the movie, I really enjoyed it. Jackson and Ricci were excellent. [More on my appreciation of her work in a later post.] The setting and the music added to the movie without getting in the way (too much) and the story kept my interest. That being said, there were some problems.

First and foremost, what the hell was Justin Timberlake doing in this movie? Ricci was very believable in her abused sex kitten role and this was one of the best characters I've ever seen Jackson play (well outside of Pulp Fiction), but Justin Timberlake? His buddy was pretty good, but I NEVER, not for a single minute, "bought" him as a good old boy from Tennessee. Maybe I'm biased, but that's not what good old boys from TN look and (especially) sound like! It just didn't work. Fortunately, he was only in the beginning and end of the movie. The meat and potatoes were, thankfully, Justin free.

As much as I was disappointed with Mr. Timberlake, he wasn't the biggest problem I had with Black Snake. No, the biggest problem was the way they hurried the sort of unbelievable ending. I was completely caught up in the story and it seemed to be appropriately paced. Then they realized they had to end the thing. Some critics have complained about the ending itself, but I wouldn't go that far. I think the ending would have been okay if they'd just taken 10 minutes or so to develop it. As it was, it feel forced. [Oh, I also had a plot problem with the "young boy" scene, but that wasn't important enough to make it into this rant.]

So anyway, I think I really liked this movie. It's weird, though, because it's a movie I'd be very reluctant to recommend to others -- not just because of the nudity and violence, it was just a hard movie to watch. I'm sorry I can't explain it any better, but ... Well, I just can't. Regardless, Black Snake is my favorite movie, thus far, of 2007, but I won't encourage you to go out and watch it. If you like Southern Gothic movies and you enjoy reading Faulkner and Tennessee Williams, I think you'd like it. If your idea of Southerness is Gone With the Wind and Harper Lee, you probably won't want to see it. [Note, I like both GWTW (sort of) and To Kill A Mockingbird, but they present a much different South than Black Snake Moan.]

While I haven't done a good job describing why I like this movie, it turns out I'm not the only one having trouble doing that. I'll close with a quote from that esteemed reviewer Mr. Ebert:

"Black Snake Moan" is the oddest, most peculiar movie I've seen about sex and race and redemption in the Deep South. [...] You have never seen a movie like this before. Then again, you may not hope to.