Junebug (2005)

Comedy, Drama

Director: Phil Morrison
Writer: Angus MacLachlan
Starring: Embeth Davidtz, David Kuhn, Alessandro Nivola, Alicia Van Couvering

"They may not be perfect, but they're family..."

Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz), a recently-married art dealer who specializes in outsider art, travels to North Carolina from Chicago to pursue a local painter, and takes the opportunity to visit her husband George (Alessandro Nivola)'s family, who lives nearby and who she hasn't met yet.

Madeline does her best in seducing both her eccentric artist, David Wark - played by Frank Hoyt Taylor in an uncanny performance - who, during his extemporaneous outbursts, sermonizes on his unique cosmology, one that involves the Civil War, slaves, Jews and male genitalia, and her husband's dysfunctional family - a skeptical mother (Celia Weston) who takes an instant dislike to her, a taciturn father (Scott Wilson) who has withdrawn into a deep silence and a shadowy presence, a hostile brother (Benjamin McKenzie) who always leaves the impression that he hates his family, and the latter's pregnant wife (Amy Adams), who immediately declares her unconditional love for her new sister-in-law. In her breakthrough role, Amy Adams delivers in our opinion the greatest performance of her career, which has earned her the first Academy Award Nomination.

A closely-observed, bittersweet and beautifully-acted comedy-drama that tells the story of a troubled homecoming, Junebug has almost instantly become a classic indie gem that many critics have named one of the best pictures of 2005.

Plot summary from IMDb: Successful Carolinian George Johnsten meets Chicago art gallery owner Madeleine at an electoral benefit art auction- love at first sight. Madeleine decides to meet a Southern original artist, so George seizes the opportunity to come along and present her to his North Carolina parents Eugene and Peg, drop-out brother Johny and his high-pregnant wife Ashley. Confronting the outsider soon opens a can of worms as emotions revive or emerge, like admiration and jealousy.

Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 24 wins & 17 nominations.
Runtime: 106 min
R