The Reviews by S. H. Pearson



Rated R.
Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, Justin Timberlake, John Cothran

Don't let Ricci's lack of clothing turn you off during the first half of this film. She's doing her best to be "sexxxaaayyyyy" and portray a shameless "ho". At first the shock of so much skin made me suspicious of where this movie was going. Was it just another commonplace script using a woman's body to sell tickets? We all know that women's bodies are likened unto cuts of meat with freshness dates. Was this Ricci's exploitation? Was this what they would have done to Marilyn Monroe if they could have gotten away with it back then? Such were the thoughts crowding my mind as I watched Rae (Ricci) playing football in a pair of bikini panties for gear -- drunker than any sailor I've seen.
The young woman is an obstinate rebel. She has some issues and self-medicates with drugs and booze. Then she falls into the rack with any man in town. A little one-horse, redneck Tennessee town. I should know that in a town like that a woman need only have one dalliance out of wedlock to get her labeled. This girl here is beyond all hope -- or so it seems.
She meets a boy she falls in love with, Ronnie (Timberlake), and things start looking up for both of them. Love has a way of doing that to people. He decides the military is a good tack so he tears himself away from Rae's arms to undergo boot-camp, promising her that this will help make a better life for them in the future. No sooner is he out of town that she snaps and heads for the first backwoods booze'athon she can find. She gets hammered and abused by a "friend" of Ronnie's who hates black people. He brutally beats her for having been a black man's lover. Then he kicks her out of his truck onto the highway. Beaten unconscious, she is left for dead on the side of a nocturnal road.
This is where Lazarus (Jackson) finds her the next morning near his home. Suddenly the movie takes a rich and soulful turn. I see a man who has tucked his guitars under his bed to gather dust. Acoustic and electric, he can make them both talk, but they've been under the bed for some time. Now something makes him want to sing the blues though. And how. The blues open a vein and let his spirit blood.
Rae is a mess and she could use some firm guidance. Lazarus figures that God has put her in his path for a reason -- despite all the misery in his own life at the moment. Time to dust off those guitars. Time to boil a pot of corn and bake some biscuits. Time to wail the blues like only a black man can and teach this confused young trollop about what should matter in life.
This is a fine film despite the coarse language and adult situations. Let's face it, real life is not Rated G. The preacher (Cothran) at Lazarus' church is to die for. Preach it, brother. This film is morally-charged. It's rich and deep despite the body-body-body overkill of Christina Ricci. This movie will change the acting career of Samuel L. Jackson. The music made the peach-fuzz on my arms stand up. Saaang dem blues, bruh. Jackson blew me away. He crackin' blew me away. That preacher spoke to my soul. Christina Ricci has some guts and Justin Timberlake is now on my map. Killer tunes and fine acting. ****