Review of Black Snake Moan (2006) by Dan S — 13 Oct 2010
Craig Brewer is a fabulous director and a good screenwriter. Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci can act. Still, there's something about Black Snake Moan that just...doesn't do it for me. Maybe it's the film's comedic treatment of Ricci's character's predicament - she spends a good portion of the movie, although far less than the trailer suggests - chained to the radiator in Jackson's character's house.
The movie doesn't seem to think that Jackson's Lazarus is psychotic, and even Ricci's Rae comes to enjoy staying put at the house to the point where, even after the chain is removed, she chooses to stay.
Equally uncomfortable is the constant sexualization of Rae, a character who suffered severe sexual abuse as a child and is now a wild nymphomaniac. Ricci criticized the marketers for the poster depicting Rae as a sex kitten, but the movie is complicit in this depiction as well.
Brewer spends more time sexualizing Ricci's appearance on screen than he does anything else in this movie. So while the writing and the direction are good, I have to ask, what for? Black Snake Moan doesn't do anything new or interesting, so those few parts that are creative aren't worth the rental fee.
This review of Black Snake Moan (2006) was written by Dan S on 13 Oct 2010.
Black Snake Moan has generally received positive reviews.
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