Actresses must kill for parts like this....

Rating: Null/10 (3 March 2007)

At the ripe old age of 27 Christina Ricci already has almost fifty credits in IMDb but her work here as the redneck nymphomaniac in "Black Snake Moan" is the best I've seen (with "Monster" a close second). A part like this almost can't be overplayed. Sporting a rebel-flag tank-top (and often little else) and funky tattoos and armed with cigarettes, booze, drugs and other fun props including a very very very long heavy chain (no false advertising here, folks), Ricci shoots the moon and swan-dives gloriously into her abused-and-abusive character. I didn't even notice her enormous forehead this time, mostly her enormous eyes (and, yeah, other bodily parts) which are just as waif-like as those of, say, Winona Ryder but edgier and less calculated-seeming. Like Blanche DuBois, her character Rae really does "depend on the kindness of strangers" but gets precious little of that for most of the running time.
With her boyfriend (Justin somebody, was in some band or something?) off to the army, Rae finds a huge void in her life and (shades of "Breaking the Waves") tries to fill it with sex with anything on two legs. Beaten and dumped on a backwoods road by yet another would-be partner, she's discovered by semi-retired musician and small farmer Lazarus, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Not trying to "dis" Jackson by not mentioning him earlier---he's great here, gold-capped teeth and all, just that his part seems an amalgam of parts he's played before; even his shambling gait seems borrowed from a similar role in "A Time to Kill." Lazarus is in a kind of funk of his own, having been dumped by his wife for his younger brother, whom he then almost kills in a bar. For me the least convincing moment of "Moan" is when Lazarus makes a seemingly snap decision to carry the unconscious Rae into his house instead of just going back inside to make an anonymous call to the sheriff; we just have to make a "leap of faith" there. With his open Bible in front of him (I'd be curious what passage that was) he decides he must not only nurse her back to health but keep her chained to the radiator until she gives up her wanton ways.
Kudos to writer/director Craig Brewer for making what ensues seem not only believable but entirely natural, even "pre-ordained." Here as in his previous "Hustle & Flow" he shows great talent for being "life-affirming" without the usual accompanying sappiness. His characters grope towards redemption with "a little help from their friends." There's no conventional "happy ending" but at least they're off the path to self-destruction (for now). Both movies also have a musical theme; I for one greatly prefer gut-bucket blues to hip-hop, so I may even buy the soundtrack for this one. The food looked damn good, too; good thing I don't live in the South, I'd probably weigh a ton. So treat yourself to "Black Snake Moan," possible "sleeper" hit of the year.By the way is there anyone who hasn't wanted to walk the road in front of an impatient truck driver and "flip him off" at least once in a lifetime (preferably without getting killed)?