JAYNE MANSFIELD’S CAR (Anchor Bay, 2012) D: Billy Bob Thornton, w/ Robert Duvall, Thornton. Rating: NN DVD package: NN Rating: NN
Over-earnest clunkiness, stop-start pacing and a predictable, sugary ending outweigh the good acting and occasional moments of weird humour in Jayne Mansfield’s Car, a dysfunctional-family drama set in small-town 1969 Alabama.
Jim Caldwell (Robert Duvall) is a distant, disapproving father to his adult sons, rigid right-winger Jimbo (Robert Patrick), anti-war stoner Carroll (Kevin Bacon) and space case Skip (Billy Bob Thornton). When the family’s long-departed wife and mother dies, her body is brought home for burial by her new family, the Bedfords, father, son and daughter (John Hurt, Ray Stevenson and Frances O’Connor).
The Caldwells resent the Bedfords, but their encounters are comic and/or erotic or philosophical rather than confrontational. Meanwhile, Caldwell’s three sons try hard to get his attention.
The men get long dialogue scenes and monologues, the women not so much, but O’Connor does a hilarious nude recital of The Charge Of The Light Brigade.
The 10-minute extras interviews tell us how much everybody loved the script and that it’s about men talking about war and cross-generational conflict. We knew that.
EXTRAS Cast and crew interviews. English audio. English, Spanish subtitles.
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