Jennifer Connolly plays Virginia, a single-mother in the middle of America with psychologically traumatized past. Come for the sexually charged scenes with Ed Harris, as a cheating Mormon sheriff running for Mayor. Watch Connolly stun in PG rated sex scene looking as good as ever clad in full dominatrix gear taking it hard and heavy. Stay for her performance of Virginia, a broken woman played to with an intimate desecration as she arranges last minute heist to leave her son something before her failing health takes hold.
Dick Tipton (Ed Harris) is a ridiculously arrogant alpha male Sherrif without a shred of responsibility towards Virginia or her son. He's only in it for the pooyani. Film legend Yeardley Smith plays the over-concerned social worker with a convincing southern drawl that makes you yearn for more. Connolly overalls feels lost in a sacred time towards an afterlife fantasy as she attempts to make up lie after lie, raise her son quite unsuccessfully, and manipulate her life around the few sex romps she has with the Sherrif.
The film is framed through her sons eyes. The actor playing her son is forgettable which is the only loss this film suffers from. It's a pretty big loss though, considering how much screen time his part of the story has.
Scenes of him casually in the house while Connolly get's railed by Harris make up the first part of the film. The second part is a series of vignettes between the son and a local girl, possibly Harris' characters daughter, with interdispersed scenes of Connolly breaking down or getting boned by Harris in various ways. I felt the sons story with his pals had a weaker dynamic playing under such a heavy talent load on top. I would of liked to see more of Connolly on top of Harris as well. The film could of been carried by Connolly and Harris' sex scenes, like a Wild Orchid meets Mother hybrid, instead it became a sidestory against a cops and robbers meets dazed and confused tragedy. The third act, is entirely this, complete with a rebellion, a Taxi Driver type of "campaign" bombing and Virginia's poetic stand-off.
The story overall invokes a tinge of Tennessee Williams "Baby Doll" meeting notes of Brie Larson's unconditional-love-under-extreme-circumstance performance in "Room." It falls short due where the bulk of scenes are given to a young actor who simply does not serve the overall momentum. Virginia shines when Connolly is on screen and simply put, due to her single performance it could of been added to what has become "The Fallen Single Mother" canon. It fails in its vision. When you have Jennifer Connolly as a blonde southern girl you want Cassavetes not Paul Thomas Anderson. They should of focused on her under the influence of knowing her own mortality was arye and the story taking place around that. It's a better way to understand the film if you're going in fresh. I hate to do this to Sarah from Labyrinth but this is a 6.5 out 10. :face_with_raised_eyebrow: