Junebug

Synopsis: Newlyweds Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) and George (Alessandro Nivola), who live in Chicago, are headed to North Carolina to meet George’s parents for the first time whilst Madeleine, a dealer in outsider art wants to sign up a painter who lives nearby.

Whilst the megaplexes thrill to the spills of Hollywood’s star-driven action movies it is heartening to see an honest, intimate film such as Junebug emanating from America, particularly as it is distributed by Sony Pictures. Feature debut director Phil Morrison exquisitely portrays the clash of universes when sophisticated Northern urban values meet those of Southern Bible-belt folk. Throw in an amusing sub-plot about Madeleine’s campaign to win over an eccentric "visionary" artist (Frank Hoyt Taylor) and you have a well-turned portrait of small-town life in the white South.

The outstanding script by Angus MacLachlan uses the well-worn visit-to-the-in-laws premise to explore the differences that both unite and divide us all. There are no cheap laughs here, no broad Meet The Parents type gags but rather a telling observation of the complex of emotional and mental processes that constitutes everyday human experience. These are typically captured in understated and often poignant moments, such as Madeleine hearing her husband singing a gospel song and realizing for the first time the religious roots of his world-view, or simple brief exchanges of dialogue, limited in words but rich in significance.

Madeleine, captivatingly portrayed by Embeth Davidtz, is an elegant, privileged woman who has an easy but almost other-worldly sophistication that makes her newly acquainted relatives acutely self-conscious. As much as Davidtz is perfect in the role, Amy Adams in her first major screen role steals every scenes as Ashley, her brother-in-law's heavily pregnant wife.

For the brief duration of Madeleine's visit the cramped family home becomes a hot-house of conflicting emotions between and within its various members. Both MacLachlan’s characterisations, tellingly realized by the well-chosen cast, and the way this is portrayed in small rather than large ways, aided by a precise yet sympathetic production design, make this set-up completely credible. Madeleine too comes to question herself as a variety of incidents make her aware of the relativity of the values and assumptions which she had unreflectively considers to be normal but are quite dissonant with the conventions of the strait-laced religious South.

Although a fine portrait of one such community, Junebug is also a deftly-observed, indefatigably good-humoured account of the unceasing round of the joys and the frustrations, the acceptance and the hostility, the caring and the heedlessness that constitutes all family life.

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