Junebug

Another American indie movie, Junebug is a welcome addition to the recent successes of Transamerica and The Squid And The Whale.

A trip to rural north Carolina by a couple of cosmopolitan city sophisticates from Chicago is the backdrop to a sensitive and affecting portrait of what family is.

Urbane and chic Madeleine, owner of an "outsider" art gallery in Chicago, and hunky southern hubby George who decide to travel back to his hometown to meet the family. What follows is a culture clash of sorts, as the couple enter the conservative, religious, lawnlined suburb of the hometown that George left behind.

The couple and the family seem to be coming from different worlds, as Madeleine's greetings with kisses clearly bemuses George's straight, no-nonsense family.

Madeleine disrupts family life with George's protective mother Peg (Watson), who is suspicious of her ways, and moody younger brother Johnny (McKenzie) who is awkward around his new sister-in-law.

Meanwhile, stoic father Eugene (Scott Wilson) laconically accepts things as they come.

Poignantly, Johnny's seemingly naive, chatty and heavily-pregnant wife Ashley (Adams), immediately takes to Madeleine, trying perhaps too hard to befriend the new family member and revealing a sad and innocent plea for comradeship.

Madeleine's time among George's family is a revealing period for her, as she watches her husband settle back into his old local ways.

Weighed against this is the subplot consisting of Madeleine's visits to local oddball and visionary "outsider" artist, David Wark (Frank Hoyt Taylor), whose frenzied paintings are a potential coup for her Chicago gallery.

Madeleine's relationship with David seems to echo her own standing in George's family home: His mother labels her a "stranger" and her sincere efforts at connecting with the family seem more disruptive than anything else. Junebug is a mature study of family life by director Phil Morrison.

Impressionistic yet sharply observed, the film doesn't offer easy resolution, but explores the conflicts and subtleties which exist in a family and how it endures and adapts in spite of these elements.

An assured debut, this is a film of true charm and honesty.