Jayne Mansfield's Car - L'ultimo desiderio

Set in the small town of Morrison, Alabama, in 1969, the film has an all-star ensemble cast but I felt that the bizarre and dark family dynamics that play out, although well acted, just never congeal into an entertaining or meaningful story. Billy Bob Thorton directs here, and also has a lead role in the movie, as well as co-writing the screenplay with Tom Epperson.

It's set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, which is still raging, and the hippie drug culture that emerged in the 60's. The plot revolves around the rich patriarch of the Caldwell family, Jim Caldwell, portrayed by the great actor Robert Duvall, getting a call from England that his ex-wife Naomi had died, and that per her wishes her new family will accompany her body for burial to Alabama. Naomi had traveled to England many years before, met a man there, and came back to Alabama to leave Jim and the family suddenly and remarry in England to Kingsley Bedford, played by another great actor John Hurt.

This will set up a number of sub-plots as the Bedfords meet the Caldwells for the first time. As mentioned, there's an all-star cast here, with the three sons of Jim being played by such screen notables as Kevin Bacon, Robert Patrick, and Billy Bob Thorton himself, while Jim's daughter is portrayed by Katherine LaNasa. Kingsley is accompanied to the States by his son Ray Stevenson and his daughter Frances O'Connor.

So with all this talent on screen what's the problem? Well for me, it was that the various strange scenarios that play out mostly didn't work, in my opinion. Some were humorous and interesting, while I thought the majority could be mean-spirited and trying too hard to be over-the-top and strange. The ultimate result for me was that, as mentioned, the movie just never meshed together into anything more than segmented pieces of a film.

My wife and I concluded it was one film that doesn't fit into a good or bad rating format. We are ambivalent about encouraging or discouraging friends from seeing it. That ambivalent stance is indeed a helpful review. They're all definitely on their own with this one.

"Jayne Mansfield's Car" is one of the strangest and most difficult to review films I have seen. To say it is uneven is a great understatement...but after completing it, I'm glad I did and think it's a decent film in many ways.

The story is set in the Southern United States in 1969. The plot is about two families coming together after the death of someone dear to them, though the underlying theme which comes to a head by the end of the film is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and the scars of war on several generations of the two families.

This is a movie that really makes you want to turn it off after the first 10-15 minutes. This is because all of the characters are so incredibly crude, trashy and unlikable. I really think the movie would have worked better had they made these folk a bit less extreme....though through the course of the movie you do come to like and respect them more (which isn't hard!). My advice is stick with the film....it does get better.

So why would I give a 7 to a film with such awful and trashy characters? Well, the biggest reason is that the acting is so incredibly good...as you'd expect with Robert Duvall, John Hurt and Billy Bob Thornton. Plus, while the characters (particularly the one played by Duvall) are terrible in many ways, they do become more fully fleshed out and complex as the story progresses.

People who have bottled up emotions for decades or have barely been introduced open up remarkably quickly in the course of just a couple of days in this incisive, well-acted, if unlikely multi-character drama reminiscent of Robert Altman.

It comes as a shock to realise the 1960's were now so long ago that elderly patriarchs Robert Duvall and John Hurt both served in The Great War (as Hurt calls it) and the emotional baggage their particular generation is carrying gives them more in common with each other than with their then still relatively young offspring (now ironically revered as the Greatest Generation) than their accents divide them.

The misleading title refers to a minor plot thread; and you'll have watch the film to find out what prompts Frances O'Connor (in a scene worthy of Russ Meyer) at one point into sportingly reciting 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' nude.

So good to see Billy Bob Thornton back in the director's chair. I don't think anyone has as pinpoint an accuracy to the south of the United States as Thornton does in the modern idiom of film. The ensemble cast is amazing and authentically played by all. Loved the truth of characters with inseparable bond; so much organic glue like the humidity of the time and setting.Each character is fully formed, carrying with them a wealth of circumstances that we understand almost from the first introduction, furthermore, develops to full intricate discovery. I loved the juxtaposition expressed between the despairing union of opposing cultures.How wonderful the interplay between John Hurt and Duvall, the likeness of familial hierarchy they wear so naturally.