Black Snake Moan (2006)

  I have been meaning to watch this movie for quite some time, ever since it first came out, but I never got around to it until this week.  That is a damned shame, really, since it's a very good movie.

Rae (Christina Ricci) is a girl with problems.  Specifically, a sex addiction stemming from childhood abuse.  Now, I'm not talking a cute little "I got caught sleeping around so I'll claim it's an addiction" thing, I'm talking about a girl who doesn't care where it comes from, she has to have it.  It's how she deals with stress.  Naturally, in a small town, this leaves her with quite the reputation.  Her boyfriend, Ronnie (Justin Timberlake), is leaving for the Guard, despite his crippling anxiety attacks.  This stresses Rae, so she goes out looking for a party.  What she finds is Ronnie's best friend (Michael Raymond-James) who beats the shit out of her and dumps her on the side of the road.  Enter Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson), a retired blues player whose wife has just left him for his younger brother.  Ouch.  He takes the arrival of a half-naked, half-dead white chick on the edge of his property as a sign from God and brings her inside.  To keep her from running off while in a fevered state, he chains her to the radiator.  This will later prompt some serious misgivings from the local preacher (John Cothran, Jr.) but Lazarus sticks to his guns.  He feels a deep calling to help this tiny deranged nympho, and maybe along the way, she can help him deal with his own issues.

The acting is top-notch, of course, and the story is compelling.  Mr. Jackson learned to play the guitar for this role and does it well.  I plan on getting the soundtrack at some point.

It's funny, I had just finished a book also set in the South with a heavy focus on blues music called Southern Gods by John Jacob Horner.  I am from the South but I grew up with Country, not Blues.  You need a river for real Blues music.

Anyway, the film is very good and I encourage everyone to check it out.  Christina Ricci spends a great deal of the running time naked or nearly so, if you need a little extra encouragement.