Monday, December 04, 2006

the parallels of junebug

after a few months of waiting for the discounted hard copy. it's finally here! it's something to watch during some down moments. junebug made me do some research and more. never mind amy adams and her oscar nom. i was more interested with the leads. so embeth davidtz was in schindler's list? i was wondering who was the first choice for the role of madeleine. as the film's commentary implied ms. davidzt pitched in at the last minute. that role was very right up her alley. raised in south africa, the graceful actress hopefully is not a typical white south african. i get chills everytime i bumped into someone who flaunts an id similar to michael richards aka kramer's.

in the film, gallery owner madeleine who specializes in outsider art, and her new husband george (alessandro nivola - another turn as an eye candy, this time the favored son) travel from chicago to north carolina to meet his family which included his stern mother peg (celia weston), bland father eugene (scott wilson - catherine willow's dad in CSI), an angry younger
 brother johnny (benjamin mckenzie -- i wonder how he attacks his OC role) and johnny's wife, the heavily pregnant, naive, chatty ashley (amy adams' academy award nominations and other awards were the publicity crux of this indie).

the family except for ashley, weren't particularly taken with the tall, thin, different madeleine. to them, she's tall, thin and different. never mind if she had a good education and she's very nice. it's a archetypal drama of the unfriendly in-laws. it's the "just because you're different you don't belong and george should have married a local girl like johnny bits". it would have been less tense, the same southern drawl for all the johnstens including george's future kids.

like the new york times review, i was also wondering about george's professional life. was he a drug dealer? or an artist? a photographer? we'll never know. unless there's a sequel. madeleine's side of the family this time. it would have also been a lovely gesture if madeleine's got to drop by ashley's hospital during the trying times. though phil morrison and angus mclachlan(the director and writer) didn't think otherwise.

meeting the in-laws is always an awkward moment. the will they like me/hate me dilemma paves for sleepless nights. there's no recipe for success when it comes to in-laws. it's either they'll warm up to you or they won't. race, culture and upbringing aren't that essential for the broad-minded. if you behave abominably, no amount of future kindness would repair the damage. that goes for life in general (photos from junebug publicity stills).