Raw and dirty - like a good blues song

Rating: 8/10 (27 November 2007)

"Black Snake Moan" is hardly the film it appears to be on the outside or how it was initially promoted, which was some sort of exploitative black man chains up white girl type scenario. True, that basic element does exist, but Craig Brewer's film is something far more. Appropriately coming from the filmmaker whose breakthrough was the hustler-turned-hip-hop-artist semi-masterpiece "Hustle & Flow", "Black Snake Moan" is a filmed blues song with its spiritualism, grittiness, and organic feel. Although it occasionally plays out more like a modern day parable than with a straight-forward plot, the film tells the story of a wild and young small town woman with a sordid past who crosses paths with a recently separated God-fearing man in search of redemption. Through several methods that serve the salaciousness of the cinema and the emotive musical scope of the film, the man struggles to heal her of her ill ways. This is all very interesting, and seemingly original stuff here that has a lot to offer.