Synopsis
Alabama; 1969: The death of a clan's estranged wife and mother brings together two very different families. The scars of the past hide differences that will either tear them apart or expose truths that could lead to unexpected collisions.
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Cast
- Kevin BaconCarroll Caldwell
- Tippi HedrenNaomi Caldwell
- Shawnee SmithVicky Caldwell
- Ray StevensonPhillip Bedford
- John HurtKingsley Bedford
- Robert DuvallJim Caldwell
- Billy Bob ThorntonSkip Caldwell
- Frances O'ConnorCamilla Bedford
- Robert PatrickJimbo Caldwell
- Katherine LaNasaDonna Baron
Recommendations
- 80
The Guardian
It's ambitious enough to aim at polished, intelligent character drama, and pulls it off successfully. - 70
The Dissolve
The story’s overall trajectory is familiar, and sometimes clichéd, but it still has the power to surprise and startle from moment to moment, which is what really counts. - 63
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
It’s too long and wildly uneven. And the longer it goes on, the more uneven and oddball it seems. - 58
IndieWire
This tame exercise never quite jives and sometimes just bombs with one-note melodrama, but always maintains Thornton's conviction about the material. - 50
Slant Magazine
Billy Bob Thornton's ensemble Southern family dramedy fails to subvert its cutesy formula often enough. - 42
The A.V. Club
Characters scream, throw glasses, screw, and strip nude for the self-gratifying viewing pleasure of others, but Jayne Mansfield’s Car never musters up even the faintest trace of Tennessee Williams-style hothouse drama. - 40
Variety
A fine cast can only do so much with the script’s pileup of generational conflict and long-winded introspection, resulting in a willfully out-of-step picture. - 40
Time Out
There’s ambition here, but little in the way of insight or genuine feeling — just a heavy-handed thesis and some extraneous Southern eccentricity.
