Black Snake Moan
By Kevin Baker, Blockbuster.co.uk
“You gonna give me another bath?”
Writer/Director Craig Brewer delivers another masterful stroke with the new drama Black Snake Moan. This is an intriguing tale about a young girl who cannot seem to find the right path in life and a blues man who takes it upon himself to try and help her. What forms from this mis-match is one of the most unlikely friendships you could imagine - so thank goodness it was done properly.
Similar in style to his last movie
Hustle and Flow, Brewer shows the power of an unlikely connection between the lead characters. Despite the box cover making it look like some sort of revenge-for-slavery flick, the film is certainly not what I expected it to be. With sweet musical parodies, touching moments and a few comical elements this pretty much turned out to be a really emotional watch.
Rae (
Christina Ricci) is a nymphomaniac… (try to stay focused) and she is pretty upset when her current boyfriend Ronnie (
Justin Timberlake) decides to join the army. This forces Rae to try and ease her pain anyway she can and unfortunately she chooses to do this with every male that comes her way. This self-destructive path reaches boiling point when she is found lying in the road half-naked and bleeding. This is where our rusty old blues singer, Lazarus, comes in played by
Samuel L Jackson.
“If you want to quit on me I understand. But please don't.”
Fresh from the anger of his own cheating wife, Lazarus sets himself the mission of saving this young girl from turmoil. He chains her to a room and attempts to preach to her about the paths of righteousness and as much as this infuriates her, the two of them actually start to form a bond and recognise some common ground.
A large portion of the film relies on music to get its point across and this is hugely to its credit as a lot of the best scenes are laid out in this way.
Samuel L Jackson did all of his own music for the film, both guitar and lyrics, so you are really getting a personal touch from one of the greatest character actors on the planet. Christina also cannot go without mention as she gives one of the best performances I have ever seen her give. This is just a nice piece of drama to watch and a musical pleasure to listen to. Enjoy!