Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Virginia

“I figured if he got my mom it was only right I got Jesse” are haunting words from the film about a boy who sets off to date the daughter of the married man who dates his mother. What the boy, born without a father, has figured from information in a high school genetics lecture that lets him rule out that the man dating his mother is his birth father. His mother told him his father was a famous race car driver. There are some slight hints the Sheriff might be his father, although they are then surprisingly abandoned, which confuses the film. The Sheriff has been having a decades long affair with the mother

This film works well as it focuses on two complex relationships. In addition, the mother, skillfully portrayed by Jennifer Connelly, is developing schizophrenia, adding further difficulties. She dates a Sheriff running for State Senator, well portrayed by Ed Harris, who is not above throwing his influential weight around town. The dilemmas of the dramas, including a fake pregnancy, steadily increase and keep our interest. A problem with the story is most characters have too many faults to allow us to fully empathize with them.

This movie’s depiction of Mormons tends to stereotype. The characters are all believable. There is a unique twist in the presentation at the beginning and end of the film. This is not an upbeat movie.

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