Southern Discomfort

Rating: 8/10 (14 February 2011)

Strangely enough amid all the flamboyant scenery chewing it is Frances MacDormand's pastel portrait of a lonely gazelle, nothing less than a Master Class in screen acting, that lingers in the mind. Yes, Hackman and Dafoe are excellent, brilliant even, and yes, the heavies are really heavy probably because they are so insistent that he is NOT my brother but floating blissfully above all of this is MacDormand's butterfly hovering above the bloody battlefield unseen, neglected, until she opens her mouth and triggers a beating from a slightly-built husband who metamorphoses into Stanley Kowalski in a heartbeat. As is often the case there are several films in one here, a film of 'issues', a thriller and over and above all of this a delicate understated love story between Hackman and MacDormand. Excellent.