Customer Reviews
Like a Root Canal For Your Eyes
If you are like most normal Americans, you probably find invasive dental procedures, such as a root canal, to be profoundly unpleasant. If, however, you are the type who, given the choice, would actually pay for the pleasure of sitting through a root canal, I believe I have a movie I can recommend to you.
I can't help but feel like the fact that this movie was made in my hometown in suburban North Carolina obligates me to say glowing things about it. Sadly, that is something I cannot do. I found it to be a perfectly horrible movie with absolutely no likeable characters or sympathetic situations.
In a nutshell, "Junebug" is about a self-important and completely uninteresting art dealer who takes a trip to the south, where she proceeds to Not Have a Very Good Time. That's pretty much it.
"This is no fun" is really the underlying theme of the movie. And it is equally true both for the characters in the movie and the audience. The overall tone of the movie is bleak, alternating between long, unenviable, boring stretches, interspersed with periodic bursts of highly unlikeable people behaving in highly unlikealbe ways. (Not the good, interesting kind of unlikeable, such murderous or creepy, but a thoroughly unengaging sort of unlikeable, such as contempt and downright crankiness). Fifteen minutes into "Junebug", buoyed between overwhelming boredom and moderate discomfort (you know how you feel sitting through an ungodly, two-hour long mandatory sales meeting while combatting diarrhea? Or getting motion sickness in the back seat of your parents' car during a long drive to grandma's house? That kind of feeling.), I began to enumerate ways of spending my time that might be less fun than sitting through this godawful burden of a movie. And it was during this blessed distraction that I began to notice that "Junebug" has far more in common with a root canal than with an enjoyable cinematic experience.
Your more pretentious viewers might describe this movie as "honest" (invariably adding the words "beautiful" and, of course, "indie" to their description, as though the latter unquestionably justifies use of the former). A root canal is also a startlingly honest experience, during which one can scarcely fail to comprehend the enormity of "a piece of my body has begun to rot and decay, the throbbing, abcessed nerve endings of which must now be extracted with a drill". The fact that it is honest, however, does not make it good. While dripping with its indie-film brand of faux-honesty, Junebug is just as nauseatingly unpleasant. As for whether "Junebug" is in fact, honest, I can only say that if I felt my life was accurately reflected in that miserable heap of suffering-artist, indie-film garbage, I would have committed suicide sometime in my teens, a decade and a half ago.
Also like a root canal, this movie is really only bearable if experienced under heavy anesthetics.
As for the performances of the cast, I suppose they are all just fine, though, again, there is little that is praiseworthy to be said about the ability to convincingly portray Uninteresting, Comptemptible, Dislikable, and Generally Unpleasant.
A far cry from "beautiful" or "moving," this load of utter crap is not even able to achieve "interesting". If you are bored on a Saturday afternoon, I would suggest that you spend it lying on the couch in your dank apartment, watching the flies attempt to mate for 106 minutes... or even just boring holes into your more sensitive tissues. Ultimately you will feel just as satisfied with the use of your time as you would have if you had watchedwatching this movie, though you will have made a much more sound financial decision.
It's rare to find a film this honest...
I wasn't expecting to adore `Junebug' as much as I did, but in all honesty I was, and still am, in love with this film. It is one of those tender and compassionate films that grow on you the more you embrace it, and I've seen this film a good ten times now and it continues to swell my heart.
`Junebug' tells the story of Madeleine and George, a newly married couple who spawn from two different backgrounds that discover themselves while visiting George's family in North Carolina. Madeleine owns an art gallery in Chicago that specializes in self taught small time artists, and when she gets a whiff of one living near her in-laws she drags her husband along in order to seal the deal, and meet her new family. It is apparent from the very beginning that George's family is not to enthralled with Madeleine, at least not his mother and younger brother. His father seems somewhat indifferent, but his very pregnant sister-in-law Ashley is thrilled. She immediately becomes attached to Madeleine, swapping stories and desiring to know all that there is to know about her new sister.
`Junebug' may not on the outset seem like it tells too deep of a story, but beneath the rich character development is a beautiful story of family and the need to feel needed. In each of the characters there is an innate desire to belong somewhere, to escape their current predicament and find solace in a new place.
Madeleine is arguably the star or main character, and her character is truly the one that goes through the most changes. She is far from a cold of superior type of individual, but she is undoubtedly awkward when face to face with her new in-laws who are far from her social status. Their less than warm welcome is also a factor in Madeleine's development of character as she struggles to make them pleased with her without losing herself in the process. George is also met with a catalyst in his relationship with Madeleine as he sees her interact with his family for the first time, seeing just how different she is from her family, and even how much different he's become.
And then there is George's family.
Peg, his mother, is obviously unsettled about his decision to marry someone like Madeleine, who is too cultured for her. George's brother Johnny is depressed with his lot in life, always living in the more impressive shadow of his older brother, and thus finds George's visit to be nothing more than a chore. His wife, the perky Ashley, is also lost within her own existence, but she never allows it to weigh her down. She longs for something more but is content with living vicariously through her newfound sister than actually to allow her aspirations to depress and restrict her. She just wants Johnny to love her again like he did in high school, and she hopes that when their child is born (her little Junebug) that her husband will embrace her again.
The acting is really what elevates this film though, proving to provide the film with that much needed heart and soul. Embeth Davidtz is beautifully complete as Madeleine, keeping her character open and exposed to the audience. Alessandro Nivola in contrast keeps himself guarded, hiding his real feelings as he floats in and out each scene. Scott Wilson is touching as the quite Eugene and Celia Weston is cold and effectively indifferent as Peg. The real stars here are Benjamin McKenzie and Amy Adams, both of which develop very strong and very real characters. McKenzie creates a very secluded and broken young man, tortured by his own inadequacies and his own hatred for his decisions. He wants something he can never attain, or at least something he won't allow himself to attain. Adams is a revelation as Ashley, infecting the audience with her natural charm and grace, elevating scenes that could have come across clichéd or generic into scenes that reach us deeper than any other film could. Her final scene alone is the most impressive and heart touching scene in any film that given year.
Such a powerhouse performance.
In the end I must urge you to drop what you are doing and watch this beautiful little film. `Junebug' is one of the most honest and real films about family and the divisions we build that I have seen in a very long time. With rich and moving performances, a realistic and touching script and a pace that allows for one to feel invested in the film from start to finish, `Junebug' may very well be one of the best films of 2005.
Amy Adams was robbed of an Oscar
She gave an incredible performance. The characters all feel real, and complex. In fact, I think Amy Adams' Ashley was a much more beautiful character than any of the others. Although, Ben MacKenzie's character has a scene where he attempts to record a meerkat special for Ashley, seeing as how they're her favorite animals, and it's both heart-wrenching and heartwarming. And, eventually, heartbreaking.
A fine film. One of my new favorites.
Amy Adams makes this film
Amy Adams makes this film. Delightful peformance. The outsider art thing seems so 80s to me - reminds me of the days of Howard Finster and early R.E.M. I think either Angus or Phil is stuck in the past. But enjoyable film
Touching, thought-provoking view of the South and culture clash
I'm a big fan of these indie family dramas that don't have tidy endings and deal with tough stuff. This one is quality and will stick with you. Be prepared, though, to not be terribly satisfied from a "happy-ending" perspective. But you will walk away enriched.
I thought the film presented a complex picture of the South, and pointed out that there are aspects of that religiously-infused, family-oriented culture that are laudable, and that big-city cosmopolitans sometimes lose sight of what's important. Some reviewers here said that it paints a negative picture of Southerners. I don't think that the Southerners' negative characteristics are necessarily attributable to their "Southernness." And you could also say that there are some less-than-desirable traits of the city woman (can't remember her name right now). Also, that scene at the church is amazing, and has to be the best treatment of evangelical Protestantism I've seen in a major film. Very fair and interesting, and goes beyond shallow treatment and into appreciation. So the ending isn't satisfying? Sometimes life isn't satisfying. I think the character of George is horribly underdeveloped, and that's the biggest weakness here. Amy Adams' character copes with a crappy life by being sweet and optimistic. It's actually quite impressive. Sorry you didn't like it - I liked it and this liberal non-Southerner doesn't ever imagine himself living there.
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