“Junebug”
Sony Pictures Classics
Directed by Phil Morrison
Written by Angus MacLachlan
Starring: Alessandro Nivola, Embeth Davidtz, Amy Adams, Ben McKenzie, Celia Weston and Scott Wilson
Rated R/107 minutes
Opens Sept. 16, 2005
Four out of four stars
George is from a small town in North Carolina, but he has long since left his southern roots behind. Now he lives in downtown Chicago and has just had a fly-by-night wedding to Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz), an art dealer.
She has just heard about a “visionary” new artist who just so happens to live near George’s (Alessandro Nivola) hometown.
As for the artist? He specializes in Civil War paintings-with an abstract twist. He mixes modern iconic symbols with renderings of old generals and soldiers, all of whom have, in place of pants, enormous erections.
Madeleine reacts, “I love all the dog heads, and computers…and the scrotums.”
But back to the plot. The new couple decides to kill two birds with one stone-she’ll meet with the artist, David Wark (Frank Hoyt Taylor), and the two will visit George’s family, which he hasn’t seen in years, and which has never met his new wife.
We think we know exactly where “Junebug” is going, but then it surprises us, again and again: This isn’t just another run-of-the-mill story about the “culture shock” between the big-city slickers and the down-home Southern folk, but something much deeper.
“Junebug,” by first-time director Phil Morrison and first-time screenwriter Angus MacLachlan, is a great film that loves its characters, no matter how complex, nave or bullheaded they are and no matter how different they are from one another.
For once, this is a movie that doesn’t judge or mock them. Most filmmakers can only dream of creating characters this human.
George’s resentful brother Johnny (Ben McKenzie) is cold and distant, at times practically unfeeling. He is not excited about his wife Ashley’s baby on the way. Ashley-played by Amy Adams in a show-stopping performance that won her a Special Jury Prize at Sundance this year-is the heart of the film, happy and talkative and hopelessly optimistic. Her perpetual smile is earnest but hides a deeper sadness.
There is a moment in “Junebug” that captures the essence of the film. Johnny is lazily watching TV when he stumbles upon a documentary about meerkats, which he (and the audience) knows to be his young wife’s favorite animal. For the next five minutes, he frantically (and eventually, angrily) searches for a videotape to record the show, just because he knows it will make Ashley happy.
It is a side of Johnny we haven’t yet seen, but it’s a telling sequence; it suggests that, in contrast to most movies, these characters aren’t simply slaves to the dogmatic prototypes of screenwriting manuals.
In other words, they’re real.
In another scene at a town social (yes, they still have those), Madeleine sees a side of George she’s never seen, as he sings an a cappella hymn of such beauty and simplicity, the room’s silence lingers for several moments after he’s finished.
“Junebug” is equal parts warm and poetic, a film of small treasures and simple gestures, an often-hilarious, often-heartbreaking slice of human life, honestly and beautifully told.
