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'Forty Shades of Blue': Tolstoy meets Hank Williams

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, "Forty Shades of Blue" hits you like a shot of moonshine whiskey. Right in the gut, with a buzz that just keeps going.

As much Hank Williams as it is Tolstoy, this unhappy-family tale grooves on the Memphis scene and Memphis music as expertly as last summer's "Hustle & Flow." But it's a different scene, different music (for the most part) and definitely a different vibe.

First Look Pictures 'Forty Shades of Blue' B+ The verdict: As genuine and seductive as the Memphis Blues. Director: Ira Sachs Starring: Rip Torn, Dina Korzun, Darren E. Burrows, Paprika Steen, Red West Run time: 107 minutes Release date: Sept. 28, 2005 Rating: Not Rated On the web Official movie site Rate 'Forty Shades of Blue'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Rip Torn gives a, well, rip-roaring performance as Alan James, a legendary music producer in the Sam Phillips mold. He's proud to be an early architect of the Memphis sound, which, as he says at one of the nonstop tributes in his honor, brought black "race music" and white "hillbilly music" together to create something uniquely American.

Alan lives with Laura (Dina Korzun), a willowy, sorrowful, much-younger Russian emigre he met while touring Moscow. They have a 3-year-old son, whom Alan dotes on, but no wedding rings. He's not exactly faithful to her, either — those tributes usually include some comely young thing for his delectation — but he's true to her in his way. And her tears torment him — when he notices.

Things get more complicated when Alan's estranged adult son from a previous marriage, Michael (Darren E. Burrows), comes to visit. Both he and Laura are caught in the Alan James whirlwind — or is it vortex — so it's no wonder a bond develops between them.

As the title suggests, the movie is about being blue. About isolation, alienation and being adrift in your own life.

Laura seems especially adrift. We first meet her as she floats mysteriously past a department store's perfume counters — a strange woman in a very strange land. At parties, she could just as well be wandering along a stormy Russian steppe. That's how removed she seems.

Not that she's not grateful to (and in love with) Alan. Rather, she's overwhelmed by America's abundance, by the many gifts he lavishes on her. So much so, she feels guilty for the inchoate melancholy that streams down her face at the most unexpected times. Her tears make Alan uncomfortable, not only because he loves her and wants her happy, but because he's confused when a woman — any woman — weeps.

Granted, Alan is a handful. He's both revered and feared, known for his blazing temper as well as his huggy-bear ways. In Torn's tumultuous, life-force portrayal, he's a man of many appetites, an irresistible force. And in Laura he's met an immovable object. When he fails to show up for a lunch he initiated and insisted she attend, he tells her he was held up. "And what should I do while you get held up?" she asks, in an Old World, world-weary tone.

Whippet-thin, with a sad-eyed elegance, newcomer Korzun matches Torn scene for scene. At times, it's as if Greta Garbo had somehow found her way to Graceland.

Emotionally true and sharply observed, "Forty Shades of Blue" is the sort of small movie that can too easily slip between the cracks. Don't let it.