Virginia/What's Wrong With Virginia (2010) or, A Woman's Struggle

♥♥♥♥♥♥

1 Film Excess win:

Best Lead Actress: Jennifer Connelly

5 Film Excess nominations:

Best Film (lost to The King's Speech) 
Best Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black (lost to Christopher Nolan for Inception)
Best Lead Actress: Jennifer Connelly (won)
Best Supporting Actor: Barry Shabaka Henley (lost to John C. Reilly for The Extra Man) 
Best Cinematography: Eric Alan Edwards (lost to Wally Phister for Inception) 

+ Most Under-appreciated Movie of the Year

Jennifer Connelly looks troubled and is aslant on this poster for Dustin Lance Black's Virginia

Virginia is a fickle-minded mother with a past of mental illness, who lives in an American town that has her confused with its excessive focus on God through different Christian sects. The local Mormon sheriff Tipton, who is running for office, has carried on a two decades long extra-marital affair with Virginia. Her teenage son is now out to prove that Tipton is not his father, in order that he can date Tipton's daughter. - Life is not easy for Virginia.

 
Virginia is written and directed by Californian master filmmaker Dustin Lance Black (The Journey of Jared Price (2000)), whose 2nd film as a director it is. It is a movie that is hard to sum up, but it is a rich and emotionally rewarding experience. It is about a woman who struggles for respectability; struggles to do the right thing; struggles to keep it together; but struggles most of all for her son. It is about everyone's pursuit of happiness, reassurance, God, redemption and love. And the anxieties and stresses that all of these concepts also congest in the human mind.
Jennifer Connolly (Requiem for a Dream (2000)), one of the finest actresses we have today, is magnificent as Virginia. She helped pick items for Virginia's house and wardrobe for the film, and throughout the film it is a luxurious joy to see her truly own that character. Connolly is supported by great actors in all the other parts: The young Harrison Gilbert (Need for Speed (2014)) impresses as Virginia's direct, sincere son. Ed Harris (Appaloosa (2008)) shines in another difficult part as sheriff Tipton, a desperate and dangerous man who has built himself a life that's only held together by corroding lies. Barry Shabaka Henley (Collateral (2004)) has a small, but pivotal part as Virginia's old male nurse. Their scenes are nothing short of heartbreaking.
Emma Roberts (Valentine's Day (2010)) and Amy Madigan (Winter Passing (2005)) are good as the daughter and wife of Tipton. And Toby Jones (Kaleidoscope (2016)) and Paul Walter Hauser (Richard Jewell (2019)) are a gift as a tragic - and sometimes funny - couple.
Virginia is so rich with texture and American life: The sheriff Tipton character inevitably made me think of last year's Mormon presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who was about as trustworthy as sheriff Tipton and probably had a Virginia or two in his chained up Mormon closet somewhere as well.
The movie plays out mostly in a sleepy Summer town with a theme park. Everything comes to life around a governor's visit to the local sheriff's campaign. There is an unreal, stagnant atmosphere in that little society. The characters are never judged. The roller-coasters in the town's background seem to reflect on their co-mingling lives in the drowsy town.
Quite often in Virginia, the characters speak lines that are unintentionally poignant and/or funny, (but intentionally written so, I am sure.) The underlying intelligence is keen, and the film stays living and breathing through it, but many times I was too emotionally invested in the characters to laugh at them, even if they did say some ridiculous things. This is a testament to great, truthful acting and seriousness in direction.
Virginia has a sensitive, delicate score by Nick Urata (I Love You Philip Morris (2009)), and great, unpretentious cinematography by Eric Alan Edwards (Knocked Up (2007)).
The movie is a first class heartbreaker.

Related posts:

 

Dustin Lance Black: J. Edgar (2011) - Eastwood, Black and DiCaprio's great, intense biopic (writer)
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess



Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 12k $
= Box office disaster (estimated return of 0.003 times the cost)

[Virginia premiered 15 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 116 minutes. Shooting took place from September - November 2009 in Michigan and New Jersey. The film opened #43 to a 742$ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, its peak there and the film's only theatrical market. If made on a very lowly estimated 4 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a rarely bleak disaster with a return of just 0.003 times the cost. The release was obstructed by a bad first premiere in Toronto and following re-editing and re-titling by Black, who also told a festival reporter that the film, which is allegedly autobiographical, "was pretty bad", effectively taking the life out of it himself. Black as a director has only returned with 2 shorts and 2 TV credits since. Connelly returned in The Dilemma (2011); Harris in Salvation Boulevard (2011). Virginia is rotten at 11 % with a 4.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 
What do you think of Virginia?