Jessica Chastain, as Jolene, a pale, freckled girl with wild red hair, is only fifteen when the story begins in South Carolina. She's been abandoned by her parents and has grown up as a ward of the state. She's an appealing, impulsive, sexy girl with a casual sense of stoicism.
Let's see. She drives her first boyfriend to suicide. Her second beau is a bigamist pretending to be much younger than he is. He goes to prison for statutory rape. Chastain is sent to a correction facility where one of the staff, Frances Fisher, falls in love with her. They get it on together in private and Chastain doesn't mind a bit being loved by a woman. You get used to it.
Fisher endangered her own career by smuggling Chastain out of the Home For Wayward Girls and hides her in her own home, warning her not to leave the house for any reason "until this blows over." A quickly bored Chastain leaves anyway and hitch hikes to Arizona, servicing a couple of truck drivers along the way.
I'll make the rest of it quickly. Chastain is courted by a failed guitar player and rock singer who now runs a tattoo parlor. He marries her, but he turns out to be already married and is also a drug dealer.
She hitches to Las Vegas, where she is spotted pole dancing by Mr. Big, Chazz Palmintieri. She lives with him in a penthouse overlooking Las Vegas until Palmintieri dies a natural death from bullets.
Next, ho hum, she hitches to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she is spotted as a waitress and courted by a very odd-mannered man whose family "owns half of Tulsa." The diamond in her engagement ring is the size of the Rock of Gibraltar. She marries him and has his baby, but he's a rude, religious fanatic and beats her. The wicked family kicks her out and takes the baby.
Last scene: Now all glamorized and un-hicked by make up and a sense of comme il faut, she wanders the streets of Hollywood, hoping to become a famous movie star, go back to Tulsa, and reclaim her baby.
The performances are okay. Nobody torpedoes this movie. And Chastain is quite good in the central role, as is Palmintieri, who finally gets a chance to project genuine sincerity. There are a couple of stereotypical figures but their appearances are brief.
It's nicely photographed and directed, and the script gets the job done, but at heart it's the story of a woman abused in every way by men and by the system that's supposed to provide shelter from them. The men are all cads or crooks, and the system works for the wealthy. And the climactic scenes with Chastain's son, when she is declared an unfit mother because of her "checkered past". My God, do we have to go through that again? What is this, Lifetime Movie Network? Why not change the title from "Jolene" to "Please Don't Take My Baby!"
Well, the first half of the movie, the part shot in South Carolina, isn't bad at all, a tangled web of American values. And the weaknesses of the men are somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that Jolene herself isn't really a very admirable figure. She starts out dumb and naive, humping rednecks in pick up trucks and whatnot. But every time she meets a new suitor, none of whom she loves, and moves in with him, it's another step up the ladder of wealth and status. "The money doesn't matter," but she keeps getting richer and richer because she's beautiful and willingly shares beds.
We've seen much of this before. Other versions are usually shot inexpensively in Canada, starring nobody you ever heard of, but they're all supported by the same familiar, sagging spine. And at the end, the protagonist walks bravely alone, smiling, optimistic. She still has her dreams.
It's by no means an offensive movie. It's a little reminiscent of "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore", the far superior "Wanda," and a number of other stories of women on their own. But it is repetitious, and finally boring, in its formulaic way.
Let's see. She drives her first boyfriend to suicide. Her second beau is a bigamist pretending to be much younger than he is. He goes to prison for statutory rape. Chastain is sent to a correction facility where one of the staff, Frances Fisher, falls in love with her. They get it on together in private and Chastain doesn't mind a bit being loved by a woman. You get used to it.
Fisher endangered her own career by smuggling Chastain out of the Home For Wayward Girls and hides her in her own home, warning her not to leave the house for any reason "until this blows over." A quickly bored Chastain leaves anyway and hitch hikes to Arizona, servicing a couple of truck drivers along the way.
I'll make the rest of it quickly. Chastain is courted by a failed guitar player and rock singer who now runs a tattoo parlor. He marries her, but he turns out to be already married and is also a drug dealer.
She hitches to Las Vegas, where she is spotted pole dancing by Mr. Big, Chazz Palmintieri. She lives with him in a penthouse overlooking Las Vegas until Palmintieri dies a natural death from bullets.
Next, ho hum, she hitches to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she is spotted as a waitress and courted by a very odd-mannered man whose family "owns half of Tulsa." The diamond in her engagement ring is the size of the Rock of Gibraltar. She marries him and has his baby, but he's a rude, religious fanatic and beats her. The wicked family kicks her out and takes the baby.
Last scene: Now all glamorized and un-hicked by make up and a sense of comme il faut, she wanders the streets of Hollywood, hoping to become a famous movie star, go back to Tulsa, and reclaim her baby.
The performances are okay. Nobody torpedoes this movie. And Chastain is quite good in the central role, as is Palmintieri, who finally gets a chance to project genuine sincerity. There are a couple of stereotypical figures but their appearances are brief.
It's nicely photographed and directed, and the script gets the job done, but at heart it's the story of a woman abused in every way by men and by the system that's supposed to provide shelter from them. The men are all cads or crooks, and the system works for the wealthy. And the climactic scenes with Chastain's son, when she is declared an unfit mother because of her "checkered past". My God, do we have to go through that again? What is this, Lifetime Movie Network? Why not change the title from "Jolene" to "Please Don't Take My Baby!"
Well, the first half of the movie, the part shot in South Carolina, isn't bad at all, a tangled web of American values. And the weaknesses of the men are somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that Jolene herself isn't really a very admirable figure. She starts out dumb and naive, humping rednecks in pick up trucks and whatnot. But every time she meets a new suitor, none of whom she loves, and moves in with him, it's another step up the ladder of wealth and status. "The money doesn't matter," but she keeps getting richer and richer because she's beautiful and willingly shares beds.
We've seen much of this before. Other versions are usually shot inexpensively in Canada, starring nobody you ever heard of, but they're all supported by the same familiar, sagging spine. And at the end, the protagonist walks bravely alone, smiling, optimistic. She still has her dreams.
It's by no means an offensive movie. It's a little reminiscent of "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore", the far superior "Wanda," and a number of other stories of women on their own. But it is repetitious, and finally boring, in its formulaic way.