Hounddog

This is a bad film. It is not really Dakota's fault, but to be honest I wasn't really impressed with her this time around. I felt like she was a little too much, a little too melodramatic, and definitely not as real as she is in her other films. The real problems with this film lie in the directing, the script, and the pacing. It's poorly filmed (though beautifully lensed), the script panders to too many stereotypes to even enumerate, and even though it's very short, it crawls along.

All the controversy about the rape is unfounded, too, because it actually is only a very small piece of the movie. You see her face twice and her hand once, and you hear her. I'd say it was 45 seconds. Maybe not even that long.

Anyways, color me disappointed. Definitely not worth all the hype, and I really wish Dakota could have found a better filmmaker(s) and film(s) during all the time she wasted as this film sat in preproduction. I hope this doesn't affect her career too much.

Shot in 2006 and released in 2007 this film has some good things about it. The acting is quite strong from Dakota Fanning, she does a very good southern accent. There's a nice yellow tint to it, colours look lovely, the production design very well recreates the 1950s rural southern poverty while the music of Elvis acts as a great soundtrack. The hot nights and church services and sense of reality is very much present in the film. It's a story of a girl who uses music to get through tough times and grow as a person. There's also a real loss of innocence that comes along too in the film and it can at times be quite grim. Religion is not well portrayed in the film either, it's fixation on rock and roll is shown as being ill thought through while one woman who prides herself as being a firm Christian is perhaps the most unforgiving character in the story. There's lots of snake imagery to it too. I also did wonder why nobody seemed to go to school.

The film is also quite slow paced, very much a slow burner.

Wonderful film. The actors are very convincing. The film takes place in the 1950's and everything about the film is just as I imagined it would be at that time. Dakota Fanning is such an amazing actress. The main character Lewellen lives such a tragic life very reminiscent of the main character in Bastard Out of Carolina. If you loved that film, then you'll probably love this one. Although this one is toned down a lot from Bastard Out of Carolina. Watching Lewellen fall from something so innocent into a tragedy is heartbreaking. I just kept wishing for things to get better for her. Some people may think that the main characters are stereotypically southern, but I come from the South and grew up in conditions not to different from Lewellens, and there ain't nothing' stereotypical about it. From the grandma with a shotgun to treating snake bites with whiskey. This is an amazing film. Give it a chance!

The voter of 7 was mostly for Dakota and her excellent acting. The story was admittedly slow and plot fairly thin, but then it is a Chick Flick, which is all about emotions and relationships, so pace and plot is somewhat irrelevant. The acting was superb all the way around. I saw it based on Dakota being in it. Everyone else's acting was very good from David Morse, Piper Laurie and the Snake Guy. A better Southern Goth tale is Winter's Bone, but like my summary says "If you love Dakota Fanning then it is worthwhile." FYI - I did not hear about all the "controversy" about Dakota's character getting raped. It didn't influence me one way or the other. I have known that this has happened and showing it in context is not inflammatory, although if you were a victim and it still greatly messes with your mind, I don't think seeing it would help.

Reading some of the reviews here, and elsewhere, it is clear that the reviewers haven't actually seen this film - unless there are lots of different versions out there. They didn't see the film I did, for sure. There is no gratuitous or graphic violence or sex, and the only bit of nudity comes courtesy of David Morse's behind. If anything, a little more sex or violence might have enabled more of today's jaded audience to actually get the point of this movie.

As I understand it, the story they are trying to tell (in my opinion, unsuccessfully but more of that later) is of an adolescent girl who over a short period of time, due to a sequence of unfortunate events, goes from expressing herself through the voice of Elvis, to eventually being able to express her true self with her own voice, with help from Charles (Afemo Omilami).

As a story it holds water, is certainly - unfortunately - true to life and the central role is played with much maturity and sensitivity by Dakota Fanning (bar her mandatory screaming-for-no-reason scene) who may or may not have over-egged her performance (I don't know what was and wasn't said by her) but she is the one carrying this film, and it is not her fault that through clumsy editing and a weak screenplay the story kinda gets lost in the overall dullness.

None of the supporting characters are particularly well described and just when we do think we're getting to know them ... cut to a completely different scene. It's almost as if this was a vehicle for a 12-13 year old Dakota Fanning, which is not doing her, her co-stars or the film any favours. It perhaps should have been longer, and less time devoted to the relationship with her father which isn't particularly relevant to the story I think they're trying to tell.

My advice is watch it and make up your own mind, but don't expect to be shocked, disgusted, or entertained. The brief glimpses of humour and happiness are lost amongst the monotony of dull sound and scenery. Where's the rock'n'roll, where's the blues? Where are all the characters that surely must have been in the story, in the south, in the 1950s?

A worthy attempt to tell a powerful story, but lacking in flair and direction.