JUNEBUG
Directed by: Phil Morrison.
Produced by: Mindy Goldberg & Mike S. Ryan.
Written by: Angus MacLachlan.
Director of Photography: Peter Donahue.
Edited by: Joe Klotz.
Music by: Yo La Tengo.
Released by: Sony Pictures Classics.
Country of Origin: USA. 107 min. Rated: R.
With: Amy Adams, Embeth Davidtz, Ben McKenzie, Alessandro Nivola, Frank Hoyt Taylor, Celia Weston & Scott Wilson.
DVD Features: Commentary by Amy Adams & Embeth Davidtz. Deleted scenes. Behind-the-scenes places & faces featurette. Casting sessions. Outsider art photo gallery. Trailers.

Director Phil Morrison’s darkly comedic drama rapidly unfolds with the homecoming of successful native son George Johnsten (Alessandro Nivola). Living in Chicago, he fell in love with Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz), a world-traveled, sophisticated art dealer, whom he promptly married. Six months later, the couple combine business with presumed pleasure. When pursuing a contract with an outsider artist (Frank Hoyt Taylor) who lives near George's family, Madeleine sees the trip as the opportune moment to meet her new in-laws in their small North Carolinian town.

Outwardly loving and open-minded, Madeleine finds much of the Johnsten’s cozy, down-home lifestyle to be more complex than meets the eye; she has bumped into a territory of manners and sensibilities quite different from her own. George's younger brother, Johnny (Ben McKenzie), welcomes her with the same begrudging antagonism he treats his whole family; George's parents are cordially distant; and Johnny's wife, the child-like Ashley (a delightful Amy Adams in a layered performance) is the one person who immediately embraces Madeleine, and does so to an unsettling extreme degree. With the exception of Ashley, the whole community exudes a neighborly but self-protective provinciality towards Madeleine. Like the artist's work, which erotically renders events of the Civil War, the townsfolk reflect a homogeneous and bigoted side of the area's cloistered past and present.

In a most graceful and gracious performance, Davidtz gives Madeleine an eloquent poise and warmth that allows the viewer to suspend judgment on all with whom she interacts. As George's mother, Celia Weston provides an engaging and understated balance of malaise and matriarch, and Scott Wilson brings to George's taciturn father a combination of simple-mindedness and soulful simplicity.

Where the story only becomes vague is in its sparse integration of George. It seems more a problem with Angus MacLachlan's script than that of Nivola's performance. The viewer is left to surmise that much of George's absence is based on his need for personal space away from his family. Max Rennix, actor & writer based in New York
August 3, 2005

DVD Extras: The auditions of Amy Adams and Ben McKenzie are the best of the special features. To see their work before they had won their roles makes their talent even more appreciated. It is also remarkable how they evolved to make their readings more like what was in the movie. In the best of the behind-the-scenes, Alessandro Nivola learns the hymn he sings in the film, and the audio commentary with Adams and Davidtz is charming, more like two friends catching up. But the only deleted scene worth watching is the final one. It helps resolve Johnny's transformation in a way the movie doesn't. Lauren Hines
January 17, 2006