CNS Movie Review: Black Snake Moan

Black Snake Moan

By Harry Forbes
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Black Snake Moan" (Paramount Vantage) is an extremely lurid, but ultimately redemptive, melodrama set in Tennessee.

Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson) is an aging blues singer, bereft and bitter after his wife has left him. He's barely able to contain his propensity for violence despite the encouragement of the gentle preacher R.L. (John Cothran) who serves as his mentor.

Rae (Christina Ricci) is the town trollop first observed in the film's initial scene in a torrid lovemaking sequence with her soldier boyfriend, Ronnie (Justin Timberlake), whose declaration of lifelong commitment hardly lessens Rae's drive for male companionship the minute he's summoned back to boot camp. (We learn her psychosis is the result of sexual abuse suffered as a child. At one point, she is coldly rejected when she tries to reconcile with her mother.)

After Rae is badly beaten by Gil (Michael Raymond-James), Ronnie's lowlife friend, Lazarus finds her unconscious body in the road, and tenderly nurses her back to health, actually chaining her to his radiator to protect her from herself and, exorcismlike, cure her of her insatiable drives.

Lazurus steadfastly endeavors to help her overcome her emotional addictions, resolutely evading the sexual wiles she tries to use to win her freedom. In the process, he conquers his own inner demons, and true to his name, experiences a sort of resurrection.

Writer-director Craig Brewer ("Hustle & Flow") pulls out the stops with an intentionally florid style. When the film begins, the sordid milieu and characters are extremely off-putting, and some of the situations even risible, but as the narrative progresses, you understand Brewer's intent.

Jackson and Ricci deliver stunning performances, the former a convincingly grizzled old-timer whose powder-keg temper softens convincingly, and Ricci (so completely different from the delightful heiress she plays in the upcoming fairy tale "Penelope"), demonstrating the aching vulnerability beneath the lewdness.

S. Epatha Merkerson projects warmth as an empathetic friend of Lazurus, and singer Timberlake demonstrates another aspect of his talent as the emotionally damaged soldier. Under Brewer's assured leadership, they make the more outrageous plot elements palatable.

For all the film's quality, make no mistake: "Black Snake Moan" must be approached with caution. The high quotient of sex, violence and foul language -- which walks the finest of lines between morally objectionable and dramatically valid -- will seriously limit the film's appeal to audiences, Catholic and otherwise.

And yet, the compassionate view of the main characters -- loving the sinners much as we loathe the sin and the attendant sordidness -- and the highly redemptive ending, help justify an "L" as opposed to an "O" classification. For all its prurient elements, this story of an older man helping an amoral young woman realize her better self, is more touching -- and, paradoxically, less offensive -- than the similarly themed "Venus," despite the latter's far less squalid milieu.

The film contains pervasive rough and crude language and profanity, racial epithets, strong sexuality including a couple of graphic encounters without nudity, premarital situations, upper female nudity elsewhere, violence and drug use. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies.

END

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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