ScreenWize

Filled with warmth, tenderness and a hint of brooding darkness stretched thinly below its surface, this film is a beautiful observation of a worldly woman immersed, for just a few days, in a small-town family in America’s bible belt. It radiates sensitivity in its portrayal of ordinary people dealing with everyday realities, yet manages to take us on a journey of discovery, elevating those small moments of life that bring people together towards the spiritual.

The film opens when George (Alessandro Nivolo) walks into Madeleine’s (Embeth Davidtz) fashionable art auction room in Chicago, and she seems to light up. There’s something about his presence, and particularly his angelic smile that has her – and others – captivated. Six months later the two of them decide to travel to North Carolina where Madeleine needs to close a deal with a local artist. George suggests that it will give her an opportunity to meet his family, from whom he seems to have escaped.

Once there we watch, and wait, and wonder just how the sophisticated and overseas educated Madeleine will handle George’s judgmental mother, unresponsive father, and frustrated and resentful brother Johnny. No more than a strange object in a foreign land, Madeleine is rescued by Johnny’s wife Ashley (Amy Adams), a mother-to-be with a heart of gold and a childlike curiosity about the new member of the family. But when the noise of George and Madeleine’s lovemaking spills out into the small house there is sense that something else has seeped out with it.

Director Phil Morrison focuses on the complex and difficult connections between these people, illuminating the need we all feel to reach out, even though it may not be to the right person. Scriptwriter Angus MacLachlan maintains the tension in his superb script by cleverly withholding any information about George so that his character becomes the mystery that we, like Madeleine, are trying to unravel. The performances – particularly from Amy Adams – are deep, strong and wonderfully real. It’s a rare gem of an independent film from America.

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Filed Under: Reviews by Simon