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'Junebug' offers cultural, personality clashes with grace

You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy.

Like most cliches, there is a nugget of truth in that adage, illustrated with a nimble avoidance of cliches in the delicate, wise Junebug, the feature directorial debut of North Carolinian Phil Morrison.

Sony Pictures Classics 'Junebug' B+ The verdict: A tale of going home, told with even-handed gentleness, by first-time director Morrison. Director: Phil Morrison Starring: Amy Adams, Embeth Davidtz, Benjamin McKenzie, Alessandro Nivola, Frank Hoyt Taylor Run time: 102 minutes Release date: August 5, 2005 Rating: R for sexual content and language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "Junebug"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

His main character, George Johnston (Alessandro Nivola of Mansfield Park), is also from the Tarheel State, though he moved to Chicago, got citified and married a worldly art gallery owner, expecting never to return to his rural roots. But when his wife, Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz, Bridget Jones' Diary), attempts to sign a bigoted, but talented folk artist who lives near where George grew up, they draw a deep breath and decide to visit his parents.

Were this a high-profile studio movie, instead of a low-budget indie, one could imagine the fish-out-of-water jokes or even the melodrama that could be carved from the cultural gulf between these creatures from separate worlds. Instead, screenwriter Angus MacLachlan has found the humanity in each character, avoiding cheap shots or siding with the urban sophisticates over the backwoods clan, or vice versa, with a tale that unfolds with slow assurance.

George's mother, Peg (Celia Weston), does take an instant dislike to Madeleine, as she might to anyone who has captured her prodigal golden boy. But with Madeleine's sleek, posh appearance and European affectations, it is easy for Peg to resent this alien woman. In contrast, very pregnant, motor-mouthed daughter-in-law Ashley (Amy Adams, The Wedding Date), instantly embraces Madeleine like a long-lost sister, treating her as if she were exotic royalty.

Ashley's husband, Johnny (Benjamin McKenzie), who has a dead-end job in a mail-order kitchenware factory, is openly envious of his upwardly mobile brother. Struggling to gain a high school equivalency certificate, and feeling trapped by his imminent fatherhood, Johnny sullenly mopes. When Madeleine offers to help him with a term paper on Huckleberry Finn, Johnny defensively turns it into a sexual advance.

Through it all, George's dad, Eugene (Scott Wilson), is a man of few words, whose answer to conflict is to withdraw to his woodworking shop.

The Johnstons may be dysfunctional, but they believe in family, and they rally around Ashley when a crisis arises from birth complications. George is particularly solicitous of Ashley, while Madeleine callously goes off to cement the deal with her artist quarry.

The Johnstons are a fervently spiritual clan — another point of contrast with Madeleine. Their religious traditions are depicted without cynicism and when George is coaxed into singing a hymn at a church social, it shows how much his Southern upbringing resides within him.

Director Morrison lingers on moments like this, avoiding comment, just as he enjoys scanning empty rooms, slowly observing their quiet details.

He is fortunate to have this cast, all of whom seem to have inhabited these characters for years. Nivola takes the center of the film with a natural ease. Davidtz's Madeleine turns on her professional charm and is puzzled when it fails to have its usual positive effect. Ultimately, though, it is Adams as the bubbly Ashley — singled out for acting honors at Sundance — who wins our hearts.

Junebug, like the beetle, is a pokey little film. But when it spreads its wings, it soars with unexpected grace.