August 10, 2007

Black Snake Moan (2007)

Black Snake Moan stars Samuel L. Jackson as Lazarus, a man who has lost his wife to his own brother. Broken down and bitter, he finds Rae, played by Christina Ricci, on the side of the road near his house, broken down, beat down, and filled with the "itch."

The itch is a sickness, it drives her crazy, sex crazy. She was abused in horrible ways as a child and by men all her life. The pain starts in her head where the memories are, and it works it's way down her body. The only thing that has ever made the pain go away is sex. It releases her from the nightmarish memories that haunt her.

Rae lives with her boyfriend Ronny, played by Justin Timberlake, who wants to be a soldier and heads off for basic.
Ronny suffers severe anxiety attacks, and is eventually sent home.
But while he's away, Rae can't handle it on her own, Ronny used to be able to calm her down so she didn't go crazy with the itch, and go out looking for sex.
Rae used to help Ronny with his panic attacks, they were good for each other.
So while he's gone, Rae goes out and parties, tries to find peace, and what she finds is Ronny's best friend who abuses her and uses her, just like pretty much every other man she's ever known.

Lazarus finds her after this, and first heals her wounds and her nasty bad cough, then he aims to cure her of her evil ways.
He chains her to his heating radiator.
He cannot be moved on this.
He believes God has set Rae in his path for a reason.
Turns out, they were both set in each other's path.

This is the kind of movie you go in thinking it's going to be one kind of movie, and you come out realizing you just saw something else.
You see Lazarus and Rae help heal each other, and then Lazarus with the help of his preacher friend and some good ol' blues, help heal Rae and Ronny's nearly broken relationship.

There is some incredible blues on the soundtrack. I mean just downright soulful blues, the kind that hits your core.

Over all, this is a very decent movie, definitely not recommended for anyone under age 16 in my opinion. It starts with Rae and Ronny having sex, that is the opening scene.
There's bad language, graphic sex and violence, not a kids movie, and not for the faint of heart.

But there is a beautiful message in this film of love, forgiveness, and redemption.
They all help each other find their place of peace, and they all are able to move on with their lives and let the bitterness go.
For Lazarus, that means he lets his hatred of his ex-wife and brother go, and opens up his heart again to find love.
For Ronny and Rae, they belong together, they fix one another when they each need comfort that only the other can bring them.