Black Snake Moan
To the man who loves movies for their own sake, there are few actors who have the screen presence of Mr. Samuel L. Jackson. I have often told Watson the third this, but often Mr. Jackson’s choice of roles have been too outre for the good doctor. “Snakes on a Plane.” “Unbreakable.” Those “Star Wars” things. Once I mentioned to Watson that his latest movie also featured Miss Christina Ricci as a girl of questionable morals, however, well, you know Watson. I could hardly hail a cab quickly enough.
What we found at the scene of the movie was a tragic tale of the sort of broken people one finds on “The Jerry Springer Show.” Ronnie and Rae are a young couple living in a trailer. Ronnie is pulled away for duty with the National Guard. In his absence, Rae (played by the aforementioned Christina Ricci) cannot seem to keep herself occupied with any past-time that doesn’t involve the basest of pleasures. She is a misadventuress on a level that would make one of Baron Gruner’s ex-lovers blush, and after one such night is dumped, feverish and half-naked, on the side of a dirt road.
Not far from the dumping site lives Samuel L. Jackson’s character, a simple farmer and ex-bluesman named Lazarus, who has problems of his own. His world has come apart and in finding the feverish and battered Rae on the road, he finds a mission. He has to fix her. Lazarus, of course, is no Dr. Phil (or even Dr. Watson), and his method eventually involves chaining Rae to his radiator. It is not the sort of act that brings happy results, and therein lies the story's suspense.
“Black Snake Moan” is the kind of movie that the Lifetime channel would show if men were its only viewers. It’s a sweet movie in its way, but rough-hewn. And it’s also about the blues, with some surprisingly good music. Its finish is not quite the stuff of fairy tales, but it is hopeful and good. This isn’t one of those dire Academy Award nominees that makes you wonder if the cast and crew didn’t needed a suicide watch when they were done filming it.
I’d recommend it to anyone who is over eighteen and not easily scandalized.
What Great-grandfather Sherlock would say:
“You will find the story in the first or second of Samuel.”
Past Investigations
An Introduction to
Mr. Sherlock Holmes IV