Review of Junebug (2005) by Paulaw. — 18 Oct 2005

The best thing about Junebug are the dead-on renditions of a particular set of hideously awkward moments. Believe me, I've lived through the situation in which a brunette city girl with an international background meets her small-town Southern inlaws, and they nailed it.

The critics who didn't see this movie's perfect emotional pitch are just clueless. I especially liked Johnny: he is in such obvious pain, ducking every interaction, wanting to impress his wife and only succeeding in messing up her baby shower.

Only a couple of missteps kept me from giving this a 10. First, while Embeth Davidtz did a brilliant job of acting a thankless part, she isn't devastatingly pretty enough, especially by Southern standards, especially compared with Amy Adams, to justify the family's reaction to her.

Second, although I loved the still shots of empty rooms, which to me were affectionate and very telling, I did get a whiff of the patronizing in the way the small town is portrayed: just how extraordinary is it that workers in a warehouse should be obsessed with football to the point of talking about it all day? I found that much less grotesque than I think the filmmakers wanted me to.