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been set up, the film has little else, narrative wise, to throw at us. But thankfully, although it’s a shame, it’s not a problem which taints the experience as a whole. The film is all about character and atmosphere. Here are two characters we long to see more of. They’re not terribly complicated but then people often aren’t. They’re both lonely, fucked up and in desperate need of someone to help them along the way.
Lazarus has dedicated his life to someone who wasn’t worth it. He’s now at the stage where he’s too old to truly start again so he has to come to a place where he can at least look for the brighter things in his world which are gonna keep him going. Rae is deeply, painfully in love. But she also has a terrible past which prevents her from living on this love alone. When its taken away from her and sent around the world, she acts out. The townsfolk label her a whore but it’s only Lazarus that is willing to try and reform her and look for something a little deeper than a stereotype.
Now I’ve never been to the south, but after watching Black Snake Moan, I felt like I had. It’s one of those films so brilliantly steeped in it’s own setting that it becomes somewhat transporting. It’s a small budget and a small story but it feels more cinematic than many other ‘epic’ movies I’ve seen in recent times.
It’s no longer a grand statement to claim that Samuel L Jackson is a great actor but in this he gives one of his most authentic and infused performances for years. He has that amazing ability to be a huge movie star who we’re incredibly familiar with but also manages to completely disappear within a character so that we forget that it’s Jackson we are watching. He’s ably supported by a revelatory turn from Christina Ricci. Often wasted in inferior movies or miscast in odd roles, finally comes the film to truly bring out the very best in her. She really is sensational. Fierce, sexy, vulnerable and always working off her instincts, the pair make for the most magnetic duo we’re likely to see all year.
Like I mentioned before it’s a thin story and attempts near the end to crescendo into any form of dramatic confrontation fall a tad flat. But for me it’s a great improvement on writer/director Craig Brewer’s last pic, the overly generic Hustle & Flow. He has a very sure, steady eye for the world he wishes to create and most will find it tough not to follow him there.
In a cold time of year, the raw, heat-soaked melodrama of Black Snake Moan has the uncanny ability to make you sweat.
Movie Grade: B
Synopsis:
A young white nymphomaniac (Ricci) tries to get "cured" of her problem with the help of an older black blues man (Jackson). |
