Ben Saw: Black Snake Moan

After a long dry spell, I've watched a lot of new movies in the past few weeks, and so, I have a backlog to work through. Let's start with the movie that started the run and probably the movie that's stuck with me the most: Black Snake Moan. If you look at it as a normal movie, it is truly strange. Here is a word for word and in-order transcript of the texts I sent Hen as I watched the movie:

- "Enjoying it so far. Only 20 min in though."

- "Ok. Movie just got crazy."

- "Kind of liking movie again."

- "And....got weird again."

- "Ok. Liked movie a pretty good amount."

I should explain, but first a brief plot summary:

Set in Mississippi, the plot has Sam Jackson as a farmer and blues musician who has spiraled downwards after his wife left him for his brother while Christina Ricci is an emotionally tormented young woman who deals with her pain by being the (wildly sexual) town tramp, although her fairly recent boyfriend (Justin Timberlake) seems to provide her with some peace. JT is in the military though and has to ship out, leaving Ricci to breakdown until she is found, badly beaten and very high, by Samuel L. Sam tries to heal her, but she is in a fevered state and tries to run off repeatedly, leading to the chain around Ricci's body that was emphasized so much in the movie. After healing her physical wounds, Sam sets to work on the emotional ones using the time-honored tools of good ol' Southern wisdom, low-church preachin' and, most of all, mean blues playin'. It works. Timberlake returns from the military early and sets to work on everyone that he thinks has ever done his girl wrong (re: banged her), a group he wrongly includes Jackson in. See, Justin's character has problems too and, realizing this, Jackson calms him and gets Ricci and Timberlake married where, although the movie lets you know that everything is not alright, this two kids are going to heal and move forward because of each other. The end.

Ricci's descent, Jackson's chaining and periodic religious fervor, the bible talk, all of these points in the movie are at least a little bit unpleasant, uncomfortable and off-kilter; I am sure it alienated at least 3 or 4 of the 11 people that actually went to theaters to see this thing. Focusing on the plot, though, is missing the point. This is a movie about the blues and everything that happens is basically just setting the tone of the universe of the blues. It can never seem to wear the God-talk with a straight face and throws it to the winds anyway after a bit anyway, the chain (despite what the trailer shows) is on for only a fairly small percentage of the movie then ultimately serves as a hopeful metaphor and Jackson's character is very much the embodiment of a character in a blues song: wronged, humble, angry, drunk and forlorn. At the end of the day, old reels of Son House (a great blues musician) are what the movie looks to for wisdom and summary while the blues numbers serve to move the plot along and evolve the characters. If you like blues, this movie is great and if you don't then this movie feels inexplicable. I really like the blues and, accordingly, I thought this movie was awesome.

That being said, I have no idea why this movie was made.

Sure, the acting is all strong to very strong: Jackson is the runaway highlight as he puts in what is almost certainly his career best, Justin Timberlake is a perennial positive surprise , Ricci gets compellingly lost in the role and the supporting cast is all effective. BUT..... the script is shaky at points, none of the material is mass-audience friendly and, frankly, the art house picture crowd that normally would be the demographic for a movie like this probably wasn't interested in watching a movie extol the virtues of Jesus (even if it's done with a bit of a wink and a shrug) and a marginal, unloved genre of music. The bottom line is, that this is basically a blues musical and that's a questionable commercial proposition.

This reeked of a Samuel L. Jackson-driven art project given that he spent 6 months doing nothing but learning the guitar and throws himself in to the role like I've never seen him do before. No matter how admirable, the results of this vanity piece are easy to guess: a grand total domestic gross of $10 million on an IMDB-listed budget of $15 million (which doesn't include advertising). Arguably, this movie should never have been made.

But I don't mind, I really liked it despite its obvious flaws. The music is great, the blues focus is enthralling and the actual story is good if you can accept that it's mostly a parable for the Southern-noir of the blues. I doubt that many people want to see a blues musical, but if you want to see a strange, well-acted movie that tries to tell a heavy story in a novel way there's a real argument for seeing this thing.

My Grade: A-/A. More 'objective' grade: B