Indy Film Review - BLACK SNAKE MOAN
Who ever would have thought that the title ‘Black Snake Moan’ was actually in reference to a girl who ‘moans’ for black dicks? But it is, strangely enough. Odd concept for a non-porno movie; young woman’s boyfriend leaves to go fight for his country, young woman, Rae (Christina Ricci) lusts for sex (or more specifically ‘black snake’ or to be perfectly honest ‘white snake’ as well, she’ll take whatever she can get – David Coverdale watch your back) and she goes about getting it any and every way she can from anyone she can. Until one night after one of her sex romps goes bad, Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson) a god fearing Mississippi blues man finds her on the side of the road, beaten and bruised in nothing but a skimpy t-shirt and her underwear. He takes her in and soon discovers her ahem… compulsion. After some contemplation, he decides to chain her to his radiator to heal her of her wicked ways. Later we find out the reason for Rae’s problem, ie: she was sexually abused as a child (though this part of the plot is pretty thin and feels more than a bit forced). Then her boyfriend Ronnie (played by an awful Justin Timberlake) returns, having been discharged almost immediately from the army due to a strange form of anxiety sickness and confusion, jealousy, strangeness, a plot halting blues concert and basically a lot of nonsense ensues. Phew… Alright I think that about sums it up plot-wise, or at least what I could make out of the plot between watch checks. To be fair to this film I gotta say that the first 30 minutes had me hooked, I mean it’s pretty intriguing, being that I personally am a sucker for the boldly original oddball concept, as this film is. And the way that the first act is put together in this film really is quite slick, the way Brewer (director) transitions from scene to scene, his style, his look, his crosscutting, the use of cool old blues songs to link some of the scenes together, it really is stylish and difficult to resist. I really thought after this first section that he was gonna be able to pull it off, he was gonna be able to make this ultra odd concept fly. I mean this is the director of Hustle & Flow after all, a film that was revered to high heaven in 2005 and a film that I really loved. However, it’s about the point where Jackson chains Christina Ricci to the radiator that the film delves into something that can only be described as ‘The George Lucas Syndrome’.
The George Lucas Syndrome: whereby a writer/director, because he has had some large measure of success and critical praise for a previous film (or films in Lucas’ case), he believes that he is god’s gift to the cinema and that he can write pretty much anything he wants, call that first draft his shooting script, film it, cut it, throw it together, release it and the audience will swallow whatever tripe he chooses to give them, because hey, he’s George Lucas, he’s that good (and we all know what I’m talking about here, Star Wars fans back me up). This is exactly what Craig Brewer has done here. One has to wonder if this is his first draft? Some of the scenes are so slow, pointless, meandering and just plain bad that I’m curious to know whether if he had just taken 6 more months with the script if he might have been able to deliver something that was actually good? Brewer is a talented guy. Of course on the other hand though, one has to consider the ‘Timberlake factor’. Some people just aren’t meant to do certain things. Justin Timberlake is meant to do many things: he is meant to sing, he is meant to dance, he is meant to go hee-hee and sound fairly close to Michael Jackson. However, Justin Timberlake IS NOT meant to act. I mean maybe if his character had only been in the movie for the initial part of it before he leaves y’know; he fucks Christina Ricci, tells her he loves her then leaves, then maybe just maybe he could have passed it off. We didn’t delve too deep, Justin got to act in a movie, ego boost accomplished and we’re good. But NO, Timberlake returns and he returns to do a lot of crying, a lot of whining, a little bit of fighting and a whole lot of god awful acting. I mean you can’t buy this guy as a tough guy military man, or even a young naïve wannabe tough guy military man, he’s Justin Timberlake, pretty boy numero uno, pansy extraordinaire, and his voice is so high god, great for singing BAD for acting. And Brewer cast him, so maybe he has lost it, maybe he and George had a few beers down at Skywalker and poof goodbye prolific Deep South director, who knows. I liked Hustle & Flow and believe that Craig Brewer truly is a good director who will direct other good films, but this shit is pretty awful.
1 and a ½ stars out of 5
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