Briar Patch

After watching this movie and THOROUGHLY enjoying it I thought that I'd check to see how it did on it's IMDb rating and frankly, I was STUNNED! A two point four!?!? I couldn't believe it! This was one of the most surprisingly enjoyable movies that I've rented in a long, long time. Although somewhat predictable, the simplistic mix of drama and humor, the colorful characters and the original plot all elevate the quality of this movie FAR above many others I've rented recently. I can't imagine why people feel this movie deserves such a low rating, but give it a chance and I don't think you'll be disappointed. Just don't forget to come back once you've watched the movie and help to give it the rating that it deserves.

"Briar Patch" (also known as "Plain Dirty") really took me by surprise. Despite its direct-to-video origins, the movie is surprisingly cinematic. Shot on location in the swamps of North Carolina, every bit of grime and drop of sweat registers beautifully on screen. This is a seamy, sordid tale of two men (Henry Thomas and Arie Verveen) fighting to assert control over headstrong beauty Inez (Dominique Swain), who has plans of her own.

All three leads are excellent, but Verveen really stands out in the difficult role of Flowers. At first, he seems to be little more than a man-child, playing with hand puppets and hanging on his friend Edgar's every word. Later, he's revealed to be a surprisingly conniving manipulator, becoming the film's driving force. Karen Allen features in an excellent supporting role as Inez' fortune telling friend.

Recalling classic Southern sleaze like "God's Little Acre" and "Baby Doll", this one clearly slipped under the radar and warrants rediscovery.

Young, pretty and dirt poor, Inez Macbeth lives in a squalid shack in the boonies, suffering the abuse of her criminal husband Edgar and the unwanted attentions of Edgar's repulsive, slow-witted partner Flowers, who slavers over her like a starved dog contemplating a steak bone. Inez runs around barefoot, dirty and frequently bloody from the beatings she receives from Edgar, who even chains her up. She lives only for her trips to town, where she visits a "licensed, semi-professional spiritual adviser" and her kindly and wealthy lover Drew, who plans to take her away with him.

After one particularly brutal beating by Edgar, Inez schemes to have willing dupe Flowers murder her husband and then take the blame for it himself, so she can run off with Drew. In the fallout from Edgar's murder Inez is freed of her husband, all right and even the police are happy to be rid of this criminal low-life, but Flowers turns out to be far more clever than expected, for he frames innocent, unfortunate Drew, leaving Inez with no where to go and no one to turn to, as Flowers finally takes her for himself.

This is a strong film about entrapment, desire and the wages of sin, with a good script and fine acting. Dominique Swain gives an affecting performance, managing to be sexy and fetching even under all that blood and dirt. Edgar and Flowers seem like real people - multi-dimensional and not the kind of one-sided, cardboard-cutout psychos found so often in movies. This picture is so gritty and realistic it may not suit all tastes but I highly recommend it - you may find it as powerful as I did.

Zev Berman, the director of "Plain Dirty", or "Briar Patch" as it's identified in these pages, takes a big chance in bringing this Deborah Pryor's screen play to the screen. First of all, this is a courageous piece of film making, and the characters in the film don't exactly endear themselves to the viewer. The film is a moody attempt to present us people that are living at the edge of society with basically no redeeming qualities to them, yet, we are hooked into watching the movie until the end, no small feat Zev Berman pulls on his viewers.

We were attracted to the movie on the strength of its excellent cast. Henry Thomas is an actor that is always interesting to watch. As Edgar, he is the man obsessed with Inez, a woman he mistreats endlessly. Inez, played by Dominique Swan, makes a good contribution to the film as the girl who can't take any more of the beatings she receives from Edgar. It's clear, from the start, that Flowers is secretly in love with Inez, but being such a sorry sight, knows he can't compete with Dru, the rich guy who wants Inez for himself. Both Artie Verveen and James Urbaniak are right on the money about how they play their characters. Also, Debra Monk, who is seen as the police officer Avon is, as always, excellent.

The film sort of hypnotizes the viewer with the cinematography of Scott Kevan and the haunting score by Nathan Barr. While it's clear that this is a not a film for a lot of people, as demonstrated by the many negative comments to this forum, the least one can do is watch it with some degree of respect because the tremendous job by Zev Berman has accomplished with this movie.

Really liked the acting and the cinematography of this film. Some real standout performances by Arie Verveen, Henry Thomas, and Dominique Swain. This movie portrayed the grim, gritty and DIRTY lives of these southerners quite realistically. The art direction was quite nice- and i really liked Henry Thomas' shirts- his character had a great sense of fashion, incidentally. I wasn't quite able to really, really get into the story, the pacing was a little slow. It was nice to see the development of the Flowers character by the end, again beautifully acted by Verveen as subtle and low key. I kept waiting for Swain's character to wash her hair and change her bandage but... it worked well for the denouement in the rain. The most striking thing about the film is the cinematography. Some really nice work here.