Jolene

This movie is ok most of the way through, a little scattered storyline, not much versatility, and they took every opportunity to get her naked. Towards the end it really goes off the rails and jumps the shark at the sodomy scene. With all of that I would still recommend this movie simply on Jessica Chastain's performance. She was amazing in her debut and it shows that, with her huge success now, she has been an outstanding actress from her first movie. This movie is probably a 4 without her and I can't wait to see her in more and more movies in the future.

"Jolene" is quite a film. It's about the journey of life for Jolene (Jessica Chastain), who is quite a character. A girl who was left to be raised by the authorities, she is itching to experience more of the world and be happy—the type of girl who could get hurt. But Jolene has an indescribable quality that makes people fall in love with her, lust after her, commit crimes for her and then go crazy, and generally in that order. Likelihood is they'll get hurt instead of Jolene.

The film strikes a remarkable balance between the quirky, comedic charms of the characters and the somber and serious situations that Jolene gets herself into. Although, as a caveat, I do recognize the critics' complaints that that balance can be quite jarring. The journey the film takes us on with this unforgettable character is a fascinating, funny and joyful one, but also at times, harrowing. Crimes of passion, crimes in the name of God, and crimes for money — all for Jolene — are all committed. No body is left unturned.

The path the film took to get to us is almost as tumultuous as that of its heroine. Tumbling through the small film festival circuit in 2008 and 2009, it didn't get a distribution deal until 2010. And then it only opened in a handful of screens. But now everybody can finally see this extraordinary film and extraordinary actress. Jessica Chastain is starring in Terrence Malick's highly-anticipated, masterpiece-to-be "The Tree of Life". It's time to meet this star-in-the-making in "Jolene".

"Jolene" captured my heart, and then attempted to stomp all over it, but the film leaves its mark, as does the character Jolene, as does Chastain. I'm still not exactly sure how to take it, but it was an amazing experience.

This was one of those movies where it doesn't really matter if the story sucks or if the film itself was poorly made. I could care less about any of that stuff because watching Jessica Chastain on screen is just delightful in its own way.

The story was alright, although I'm not sure there was an actual story here. All I gathered from the so called plot was that this woman (Jolene) didn't know what to do with herself and just kinda wandered & winged it through life on a daily basis.

This movie should have been the female version of "The Truman Show" where the audience can just follow around a clueless human being for no particular reason. This is a wannabe reality show disguised as a feature film and the only thing missing is SNOOKI and that's all there is too it....

This is the problem with the film- it feels like emotional torture-porn of some sort. It keeps on going through the same scenario over and over again. If you've seen the first 20 minutes, you've pretty much seen it all. It's stuck on an endless cycle of despair. I get that's the point of this character-study, but it's just incredibly repetitive and predictable. Every time Jolene enters another aspect of her "journey", you just know how it will all end. As it is though, it's not exactly a bad film just because it's well executed, even if the script really isn't good. The performances are solid, but it serves as an amazing introduction to Jessica Chastain, the most exciting new face in Hollywood. It's her film, and it's because of her that my grade isn't any lower. She carries the film flawlessly, hitting all of the notes of her character, even if it's true that the script does give her the same stuff over and over again at times. See it for her, and let's all celebrate that she was able to break out as a true star.

I didn't know what to expect from this film, but I found it to be very well written and acted. It was believeable and moved at a great pace. It kind of reminded me of Sissy Spachek in Coal Miners Daughter.