Directed by
Craig Brewer
115 minutes
Rated R
Reviewed by
David Michael Brown
Black Snake Moan
Synopsis: Rae (Christina Ricci) is addicted to sex. Despite being heartbroken as her lover Ronnie (Justin Timberlake) leaves for Iraq she continues to play the field. In most cases the local football team. After one drunken night she is beaten and left for dead on a deserted road near the house of blues guitarist, Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson.) He begins to take care of her but soon realises that her carnal desires need to be cured. He chains her to his radiator and tries to drive out the devil in Miss Rae and in turn destroy the demons that have haunted him since his wife walked out.Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci steam up the screen in Craig Brewer’s squalid little kitchen sink drama. No surprise really when you glance at the plot of the film. Filmed in Memphis, Tennessee, the film, positively sweats with sexual desire as Ricci bumps and grinds her way through America’s Deep South in a performance that channels her turn in The Opposite Of Sex (1998). She spends almost the entire length of the film in her underwear strapped to a radiator. In a constant state of arousal, the character of Rae is white trash personified and Ricci is faultless in the role. It’s no surprise when Jackson’s Lazarus takes up his bible and sees this provocative lost soul as a prospect for redemption.
Jackson is excellent. When he picks up the guitar he is the embodiment of a grizzled old blues player. Every distorted guitar lick breaks through another layer of hurt as Lazarus tries to come to terms with the anger he feels since the departure of his wife. It’s nice to see Jackson playing someone nearer his age. He may be a jive-talking cat but this is a million miles away from his uber-confident Snakes On A Plane (2006) persona. When he finally hits the stage and plays, he is perfect, the hysteria that he generates in the crowd is palpable. With two powerhouse performances already in the bag it’s no surprise that Justin Timberlake falters as love interest, Ronnie. He certainly looks the part with his army issue buzz-cut but when he shares the screen with Jackson he lacks the confidence we are used to seeing exude onstage when he is performing. It’s a case of “nice try but don’t give up your day job” for the ex N-Sync man. There are a few moments in the film that don’t work. It’s unlikely that any visitors would hang around to help once they had seen a barely-clad young girl chained to a household appliance but then again the whole premise of the film is a tad unlikely. It’s a mark of the quality of the two leads that you soon become enrapt in Black Snake Moan.
Fans of Brewer’s Oscar-winning Hustle And Flow (2005) will probably be bemused by this sordid story but the essence of the film is the same. This is a film about music and the way it can become the most important part of your life. If you look beyond the debauched naked flesh, you find the story of a man possessed by the blues, desperately trying to find the inspiration to pick up his beloved guitar and once again play the music that fills his soul.
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