Junebug
is the latest version of a classic film that has been made over
and over since the late 60s. This great film is called The
Intense, Excruciatingly Detailed, Yet Oddly Funny, Plodding, Deliberate
Tale Of A White Ass Family, Which Includes A Prodigal Son, His
Dominating Mother, His Strong Silent Dad And His Spoiled Little
Brother, Who Hates Him For Leaving...Or Some Variation Thereof.
Previous incarnations of this film include Ordinary People,
Terms of Endearment, American Beauty, On Golden
Pond and many more. The genre can't miss.
With Junebug, we have the prodigal son, George, played
by Alessandro Nivola (last seen having a threesome with Kate Beckinsdale
and Frances McDormand in Laurel Canyon...yuck!) returning
home to rural North Carolina, bring along his cute, extremely
sophisticated and impossibly likable wife, Madeleine, played by
the talented Embeth Davidtz (star of the underrated classic Matilda...and,
um, Bicentennial Man), whom the family has never met.
They've been married six months. It has disaster written all over
it. If not for Madeleine's eagerness to close a deal with an eccentric
artist living in a nearby town, she still wouldn't have met George's
family.
From the moment the enter George's parent's home, George is clearly
uncomfortable and pathetically embarrassed. He's a successful,
well-educated man, living in Chicago, and when confronted with
his own upbringing by common North Carolina folks, George retreats
to another room while Madeleine tells the family how she and George
met and who the hell she even is. Nivola does a good job conveying
the complexity of George, because it would be really easy to just
write the character of as an asshole. But, he's more than just
an asshole. George is the shining star of a small town, loved
by all and understood by none. You get the sense that he just
never quite fit and couldn't simply be another guy. He's too good
for the town and he's ashamed of it.
While the plot of this film is gloomy as hell, the performances
are quirky and hilarious. Amy Adams steals the film as Ashley,
the wife of George's little brother, Johnny (Benjamin McKenzie...yes,
"the guy from the O.C.," if you must). She
brings a certain charm to this movie that it sorely needed. If
not for her, this film would have just been a bunch of crackers
moping and whining for 90 minutes. I can watch C-Span for that.
Overall, the film is a study of the price we all pay for having
a family that loves us unconditionally, no matter how fucked up
we all are. Moreover, it reminds us again that white people have
the most emotionally fucked up families in the history of mankind.
And that's important to remember.
Wanna see some fucked up white people? See Junebug.
