Jolene (2010)

In China we say, never too young to be famous. It clearly works for our girl here. Never missed a chance to have fun. 25 years old, very accomplished. I just kept wondering what she had left along the way.

"Jolene" is, in spite of a lot of previous comments, better than average. Jessica Chastain, playing the eponymous character is outstanding. Yes, her journey is repetitive in a way, and she never seems to learn from her experiences and continues to make terrible decisions in her life. I tend to assume that this is the point of the story. Every other part in the movie is somewhat small, as Jolene moves on and never goes back. But good work is done here by, among others, Frances Fisher, Theresa Russell, Denise Richards, and Shannon Whirry. Rupert Friend and Dermot Mulroney's characters were creepy in the extreme, which probably makes it more fun to play them. There are no likable characters in this film, including Jolene, and this is probably what turns off so many reviewers.

You can certainly understand why Jessica Chastain took this role. I mean, what actress just into her 30s wouldn't? It's not only the lead in a relatively substantial production, the whole movie revolves around her character and she's on screen for almost every second of it. It's a part that goes from 15 to 25, from roadside whore to rich man's wife, from dependent little girl to supposedly independent woman. There's also a decent bit of nudity, which is sadly something many actresses need to indulge in for Tinsel Town to take notice of them. If Chastain had any hesitation about this job, I'm sure everyone from her parents to her agent to the little Korean lady at the nail salon told her that this motion picture was going to make her career. There are just two little problems. One, Jolene isn't really any good. The story is shallow and contrived and is more like a simulation of life than real existence. Two, Chastain is not the right kind female for this sort of part.This largely plot less tale is about Jolene (Jessica Chastain), a red headed girl from a life of foster parent abuse who at 15 married a young man desperate enough to take her as a bandage for his wounded heart. She almost immediately betrays him for his older smarmy uncle, which destroys everything and sends Jolene out into a cruel world that is never quite cruel enough to leave a mark on her. She passes from a lesbian guard at a juvenile mental home to a charismatic tattoo artist to a mobster to the scion of a wealthy Oklahoma family. Along the way, Jolene only gets a little bit wiser but never any more sympathetic or likable.Part of it is that the film assumes the audience will automatically identify with and root for Jolene, so it never does anything to make her any more appealing than her physical attributes. Jolene isn't all that nice and she isn't good in any meaningful sense of the word and this movie never gives the viewer any reason to emotionally invest in what happens to her. When bad things happen, it's like watching a rotting house collapse from a distance. It's momentarily diverting but you don't care about the house and you're not close enough to it to feel any danger or risk.Part of it is that Jolene does not appear to be happening in any kind of real world. The character is put in all these fake, fabricated situations that are like bad reproductions of actual things. The world has strip clubs but the one Jolene works at is classier and more refined than any strip club on Earth or any other planet. This story takes place in the present but is based on an understanding of family and divorce law that is straight out of the 1950s. And though Jolene is twice thrust into situations of great wealth after periods of practically living on the street and turning tricks to get by, she never thinks to stash any money away for herself.Part of it is that Jolene, while the center of this movie, is so passive through the very end of the story. She barely does anything. Stuff happens to her and she hardly even reacts to most of it.And as mean as it is to point out, part of it is that Jessica Chastain is not beautiful enough to make Jolene believable. The most defining characteristic of Jolene is she's supposed to be so drop dead gorgeous that lovers fall helpless at her feet. Chastain pulls that off when Jolene is 15 and radiates the sort of raw, unconscious sensuality that turns middle aged men into idiots. But as the character ages and has to lose that Lolita-like openness, it gets harder and harder to buy that Jolene is so darn irresistible. Few guys would kick Chastain out of bed for eating crackers, but she's not that good looking…or at least not that kind of good looking. In fact, if Chastain were physically stunning in her early 30s, she wouldn't have been able to convincingly play someone sexually precocious and half her age.The direction and the acting here are good enough. It's the story itself that isn't worth anyone's time. You'd be better off listening to Dolly Parton's "Jolene" than watching this.

As a foster kid tossed from home-to-home throughout southern Louisiana only to land with hard-earned education in Boston working at Harvard Medical School and living in the penthouse of the Ritz, I can tell you that I identify with this movie. There is something luring about the disenfranchised vulnerable that makes beautiful for predators (even well-intended predators with good intentions)- mark. I am most curious to learn where and with whom the author did his research to accurately reflect the subtle, but violent truths of this character Jolene. He captures the dichotomy of her seeming power but destined powerlessness with piercing accuracy.