Black Snake Moan is about a newly separated, former Blues guitarist, born-again Christian played by Samuel L. Jackson. He happens to find a mostly naked, beaten and sick white trash portrayed by Christina Ricci outside his farm one morning, and proceeds to chain her to the radiator in his living room. The two characters are foils to each other. Jackson’s washed up; his wife cheated on him with his younger brother, his musical career is over, he spends his days tending to his farm and selling vegetables at the local farmers market. Ricci’s life is just starting, and she proceeds to pop pills, imbibe and sleep her way around the lazy Southern town that she lives in. Once they cross paths, Jackson experiences a revelation and decides that God has given him a metaphoric test to fix up his life, by curing Ricci of her nymphophillia.
Thrown into the mix is Justin Timberlake, who Ricci is in an open relationship with (well, at least her end). Timberlake plays a young, white American on his way to boot camp; which doesn’t turn out too well since he has an anxiety disorder, and he returns to town, with his newfound militaristic talents, in search of his missing companion.
Black Snake Moan basically covered the map of hot issues: religion, race, age, war; I think the only thing missing was an allusion to saving the environment. The story and the characters, primarily Jackson and Ricci, are developed well, but the latter half of the movie is predictable and stereotypical. Jackson reverts to his typical badass character, all the loose ends are tied up and everyone lives happily ever after; BSM succumbs to the the basic fallicy of Hollywood.
It wasn’t a music-driven movie musical like Moulin Rouge, but music played a large part. Jackson had several performances (singing and “playing” the guitar) and Ricci also sang. In fact, ironically the only person that did not perform musically was Justin Timberlake. I also liked how the movie was shot. There were several instances where I thought, “Oh, well that’s clever”. A decent movie, that will unfortuantely be quite dated in a decade or so: 3.5/5.
Hi! and welcome to the eclectic personal blog of Kevin Quan. Come in, stay awhile, peek into the nooks & crannies, and learn a bit about me and my interests.