No Marisa Tomei-sized stuff-up
here though, this is one performance that’s definitely worthy of the
Kodak theatre’s attention. With
the comedy-drama profusion, Adams got to unleash her full palette of
colours, and essentially helped the movie ‘soar’ beyond your atypical
proletariat character expose. Her performance in the film is superb. No
way around it. She’s adorable. She’s amusing. She’s extremely likeable.
But more to the point, you can’t take her eyes off her. Funnily enough, it’s an ensemble movie too. The
film fundamentally revolves around a woman named Madeline (Embeth
Davidtz), a British diplomat’s daughter, who travels from Chicago with
her new husband George (Allesandro Nivola) to the rural hill country of
North Carolina to chase a neighbourhood, DIY painter (David Wark) for
her gallery. Because they’re in the area anyway, Madeline decides to
stop by and meet her hubby’s family. What a wacky little bunch
they are: the abovementioned Adams is the standout, playing a
very-pregnant and very-chatty woman named Ashley, a chirpy wide-eyed
innocent whose determined to name her baby ‘Junebug’ should it be a
girl. She won’t leave Madeline alone for a minute – but you can’t
despise the girl. She’s too adorable to despise. You simply, well, feel
for her – and admire her for still smiling when, as far as we can tell,
there’s no real reason to be jovial. Not to mention, want a slice of
whatever happy cake she’s eating to take for the ride home. Then there’s Johnny (Benjamin McKenzie, of The OC,
again doing a lot with just a few words), who still lives at home,
where he’s studying for his high school equivalency certificate. You
wouldn’t know it – because he treats his wife like a doormat – but he’s
married to Ashley. What an angry, mixed-up young chap he is. Along
with George’s judgemental mother Peg (Celia Weston) and hard-faced
father (Scott Wilson), they make for quite an interesting family, as
Madeline discovers. While emphasis does seem to be on extracting
the kookiness and humour of the ‘culture clash’, the film does a
surprising half-turn into some more dramatic territory later on. It’s
far from a mish-mash of genres though, with one remembering just how
close ‘laughter’ and ‘tears’ are. Take the studio stencil of The Family Stone
– yeah, the comedy where hoity Sarah Jessica Parker is taken home to
meet Luke Wilson’s more straight-thinking clan – mix it with some
remarkable characters and dialogue (seriously, the talk is priceless –
can only imagine how many drafts, and how much polishing went on
here), and splice in some ‘David Lynch’ like visuals of the beauty
around us. For instance, a protracted shot of a swarm of bees buzzing
over blades of grass, or a quiet suburban street post-ruckus, or a
listless fade-out into the next scene. Yep, this is as indy as an independent film gets. And
thank God for that, too – otherwise we wouldn’t have had the divine
characters we’ve got here, we wouldn’t have gotten so much of that
discourse, and the imaginative splicing of ‘nature’ scenes littered
throughout the movie, that would undoubtedly have been scattered across
an editing room floor somewhere. More to the point though, this is a
good movie because it’s a real movie. It speaks nothing but the truth,
even if it that means not a lot happens. But in real life, issues
aren’t resolved in an hour-and-a-half, and some of the bigger problems
(like a wonky marriage) might never be mended. Junebug simply takes a snapshot of a family in an unremarkable/just another day phase. Director
Phil Morrison and writer Angus MacLachlan, obviously had a vision for
this thing, and it looks like they’ve succeeded in bringing it to the screen. No compromising gone on here. But
yes, Amy
Adams. What a talent. She is one talented little butterfly, it seems.
Here’s hoping she’s not captured by some green-eyed exec
with plans to
re-stock his menagerie. EXTRAS DVD extras include a selection of deleted scenes, casting sessions
footage of Adams and McKenzie and some behind-the-scenes footage. Conclusion:
Movie 80% Extras: 65%
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