The dysfunctional family theme has been re-hashed infinite amount of times with movies such as Meet the Parents, American Beauty, The Family Stone, Step Brothers or The Royal Tenenbaums among many others. Junebug, an indie directed by Phil Morrison, is another comedy-drama about the subject that was released back in 2005. I saw the movies months ago when I was still on crutches but never got to review it so here it is after a second watch.

Sophisticated Chicago art gallery owner Madeleine (Embeth Davitz) travels to North Carolina with her husband George (Alessandro Nivola) to convince a local painter to be featured at her upcoming show. She convinces her husband to introduce her to his southern family since they live nearby. There, despite her best intentions, she receive an oddly reticent and cold welcome. Mom Peg (Celia Weston) is barely polite and nearly ignores her, weird dad Eugene (Scott Wilson) is a man of (very) few words, and younger brother Johnny (Ben McKenzie) is downright antagonistic and angry 24/7. Only Johnny’s pregnant wife Ashley (Amy Adams) takes an instant liking to Madeleine. A golden heart and a free spirit, she chatters endlessly with a childlike innocence at the sight of the cosmopolitan woman and provides all the warmth that the rest of the family won’t give to their guest. But then who is Junebug you may ask? Junebug is the baby still inside Ashley’s belly, a little being on whom a sea of hopes rest on.

The plot-line may sound all too conventional but unlike most dysfunctional family type movies, the movie is character driven and there is no artificial device to advance the narrative. No one overloads the septic tank or suddenly decide to stack two single beds on top of each other. Junebug is simply a look into the life of this weird family over the course of a few days and the Morrison let’s his characters’ action reveal everything about themselves. Madeleine comes into this family and much like an observer, she doesn’t affect any of the dynamics (or actually lack of) present before. She is not condescending to her small town in-laws and accepts those people for who they are. Looks and moments of silence are exchanged and only by the time is the movie is over do you get the full grasp of all the relationships at work. The movie takes its time to develop each of its character and although it has its funny moments, the film has a darker tone underneath. It is also fitting that there is no real conclusion to the movie and the outstanding cast is what makes this movie above average.

Amy Adams is by far the highlight but I will get to that last because it wouldn’t do justice to the rest of the cast which was exceptional as well. First of all, Ben McKenzie can act! McKenzie, whom you may recognize from the soap opera the O.C, did a great job portraying Johnny, the underachieving redneck son still living with his parents and in the shadow of his more successful brother. It is implied that he had to drop out of high school to support his newly pregnant wife to work in a shipping warehouse. He has incredible amount of pent-up frustration and is extremely insecure. He is both envious and jealous of his more successful brother, inattentive of his loving wife but yet loves her in his own prideful way. One of the scene which best exemplifies this is the one when he stumbles upon that damn Meerkat documentary his wife loves so much and he frantically tries to record it on the VCR while she is upstairs opening gifts in the middle of a baby shower. He fails miserably and ends up screaming at her. Embeth Davitz also performed admirably, portraying the well-meaning daughter-in-law persistently trying to fit in. We watch the torrent of emotions on her face as she tries to comprehend this strange family. Alessandro Nivola (Pollux Troy in Face Off!!!!) portrays an earnest George, the only reason this family has not been destroyed by a deep and dark secret. I thought the movie should have done a better job of developing his character as we never really understand what he is so silent about. Although we are not told why, his relationship with his younger brother is strained and almost entirely consist of moments of uneasy silence. Celia Weston is fantastic as the mother while Scott Wilson is solid as the quiet and stoic father.

At the end of the day though, the supreme Amy Adams is the heart and soul of this movie and fully deserves all the accolades and hardware she received for that role. Although she portrays a naive and bubbly southern firecracker who can’t stop chatting, her Academy Awards nominated performance is multi-layered and nuanced. The eternally positive Ashley talks and asks questions endlessly, all of this to mask a much deeper sense of despair. She knows that there is something very wrong with her husband and his family. All her naive hopes are focused on that little being inside her belly, who she believes will cure all problems away. Her talent comes through in the hospital scene, as she goes through the entire range of human emotions in the span of 3 minutes.

Production value is average. It seems the director tried to put an artsy-spin on the movie with shots of empty rooms and silent landscape. There is nothing wrong with that but I disliked the repetitive and overextended nature of it. The musical score is mostly nondescript.

Junebug is not perfect but there isn’t a single phony moment in this character study of a movie. Its characters will move you and remain in your imagination well after the movie ends and the delightful performance by Amy Adams alone makes it worth the watch.

B