Film Critique 102

BLACK SNAKE MOAN

By: ActressAtHeart

Okay, so what do you do when you are a fifty- something year old black man living in rural, I mean really rural, like time has forgotten all about you rural, Tennessee, and step out of your house and discover the body of a twenty-something year old white woman (who’s not dead, just beaten up pretty bad), in a half shirt and underwear on your property?

Well, you take her into your home and chain her, yeah, literally chain her to your radiator. When she wakes up after you’ve nursed her back to health, she has the nerve to try and leave, but uh oh, she can’t because she’s chained to your radiator. Now, you’ve got a lot o’ splainin’ to do maahn.  And therein lies the initial plot of Craig Brewer’s latest film, Black Snake Moan starring Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, and Justin Timberlake.

For his third film, Brewer has again chosen Tennessee as the backdrop. Its primary characters are a motley crew of battered, bitter, and broken souls who ultimately find comfort in the unusual twist of fate that draws them together. But let me not get ahead of myself.  Battered, and bitter, and broken, oh my! Battered, and bitter, and broken, oh my! Yep that’s it in a nutshell.

You have Lazarus, played by Samuel L. Jackson, who is a former juke joint packing, blues singing, God fearing middle-aged man whose wife has previously aborted the child he couldn’t wait to have without his consent. And who later leaves him for his younger brother. Uhh, can we say bitter?

Then we have Rae, played by Christina Ricci, (yup, Wednesday Addams has really grown up). Rae is a twenty-something year old nymphomaniac who was sexually abused by her father for the majority of her childhood, then abandoned by her mother, and finally, beaten to the brink of death upon Lazarus’ discovery of her. Ummm, definitely battered.

Finally, there’s Ronnie, played by Justin Timberlake, who suffers from a serious

anxiety disorder which causes him to be prematurely discharged from the military. As a result, Ronnie returns home and says goodbye to his hope of whisking Rae away to their dream, fairy tale of a life together. Alas, he’s the broken one.

Now, for the finding comfort part... When Lazarus is told that Rae is known as the “town slut” who has to “have it”, he sees an opportunity to “cure her of her wickedness,” thus the chain to keep her from further allowing men to abuse her. While the two themselves are never intimate, their relationship blossoms into one of a father/daughter type in which each one is giving the other peace and a sense of self-worth and value.

Enter Ronnie, fresh from the war, seeing his beloved Rae close to a, well, we’ll say “N” word. Given her past, he assumes they have been and are now intimate. But when he discovers the true nature of their relationship, he too finds himself comforted by their connection and befriends the old man.

Ultimately, thanks to the strange set of circumstances bonding them together, all are able to go on and work to be the best “them” they can be, battered, bitter, broken et al. 

When it’s all over, you’ll love this movie or you’ll hate it, there’s no in between. I loved it, and it is a definite go see for any movie lover who doesn’t mind creative filmmaking and unique story telling.