Director: Phil Morrison
Year Released: 2005
Rating: 2.0
David Gordon Green-inspired portrait of Jesus-Loving Southern Living and their noted distrust of non-Southerners (part of the reason why the family doesn't entirely react with total admiration for well-traveled Embeth Davidtz) and eccentrics, from the goofy, pregnant redhead (Amy Adams) who's in love with meerkats to the 'outsider' artist - modeled after Howard Finster? - who is most likely insane (he believes he receives transmissions from God, has an unhealthy obsession with painting phalluses, hates blacks and Jews, etc.). The deliberate pacing - which some complain about - is actually one of the strengths (in the age of rapid-cutting I appreciate someone trying to take things slowly), but there's a real lack of depth in the screenplay, and the suggestion that the wounded relationships have somehow been made better over the course of the picture is hardly evident (for example, the warm hospital bed interaction between Adams and Alessandro Nivola comes out of nowhere).
