Film Reviews

Junebug

• Rating:
• Director: Phil Morrison
• Starring: Alessandro Nivola
• Details: US, 106mins, 15s.

Trying to secure the exclusive works of an upcoming artist for her Chicago gallery, Madeleine (Davidtz) travels to North Carolina with her new husband George (Nivola) to convince him to sign a contract. Since they are in the area, the newly-weds decides to visit George's family, who didn't make it to the wedding, and catch up. Not all is well at home in the bible-belt as George's angry, confused younger brother Johnny (McKenzie) still lives at home with his heavily pregnant girlfriend Ashley (Adams) and harbours a deep resentment to George. Madeleine's presence threatens to blow apart a family that is hanging together by a thread.
Real people in real situations is the order of the day in Morrison's Junebug. Morrison, with only TV movies to his credit, directs with confidence, letting Angus MacLachlan's dialogue-heavy script rule the roost and, instead of heating up as the movie goes, Morrison lets Junebug retreat into itself, allowing the characters to come out and play. TV actor Amy Adams steals the show with her motor-mouth happysad southern hick portrayal without ever letting it run into stereotype but the biggest surprise is The OC's McKenzie who turns away from his lame brooding TV character and into a fully rounded character actor. His trailer park trash moustache and baseball cap presents him as a pigeonhole loser but his completely human performance (he treats his wife badly but loses his temper when he can't video tape a show that he knows she will like) shakes any shackles from the TV series that made him famous.

Review by Gavin Burke