Black Snake Moan

In Tennessee, Lazarus, a former blues musician, lives alone on his land after his wife leaves him. One morning he finds a badly beaten, half-dressed woman by the road: Rae, the young woman the whole town talks about. He takes her in, tends to her, and then chains her to a radiator, determined to cure her as he puts it. Craig Brewer wrote and directed. Samuel L. Jackson plays Lazarus, Christina Ricci plays Rae and Justin Timberlake plays her boyfriend Ronnie. The title comes from a Blind Lemon Jefferson song of 1927. The Mississippi blues tradition is the spine of the film in both the music and the storytelling, and Jackson sings himself. The chain is real. Ricci carried a chain weighing around forty pounds during filming; Brewer brought several to the set and asked her to pick the one that suited her. The film caused an argument. Its sexualised violence and general tone drew hard responses from feminist critics, and some reviewers found it deeply offensive. Its defenders pointed to the two performances and the blues texture. Who it is for: viewers who like the blues and Southern stories and want two strong performances. Who it is not for: anyone who cannot take a woman being chained up presented as healing. The film argues that idea all the way through.