Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Jolene Blu-ray Movie Review

Meet Jessica Chastain, movie star.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 27, 2011

There’s a reason most popular songs come in at around 3:05 and most feature films nowadays run between 90 minutes and two hours. Songs are hook laden creatures usually with easily remembered choruses that repeat and, if they involve “storytelling” at all, usually proscribe the tale to anecdotes and passing imagery. Films on the other hand are inherently visual, seeking to provide a coherent “arc” (as overused as that term has become), usually centered on a relatively few main characters (often just one, in fact). And that brings up the inherent difficulty with Jolene, an often touching and interesting film based on an E.L. Doctorow short story called Jolene: A Life which appeared in The New Yorker. The problem is Doctorow culled his inspiration from a Dolly Parton tune which has since gone down in the history books as one of the more provocative and iconic “story” songs, as brief as Parton’s story in “Jolene” is. Parton’s “Jolene” was an ode of desperation, told from the viewpoint of a troubled wife who was convinced the hussy Jolene was out to steal her husband. Doctorow expanded that glyph into a tempestuous story concentrating on ten years in the life of a southern belle, roughly from age 15 to 25, as she weathered a variety of personal storms and a series of failed relationships. Bringing Doctorow’s source story to the screen probably seemed like a good idea, despite the fact that Doctorow hasn’t exactly translated well to the cinematic medium (Ragtime had to wait for a Broadway musical version to really capture its zeitgeist, and Doctorow divorced himself from the film adaptation of his brilliant Billy Bathgate). But while the film offers an indisputably star-making performance by Jessica Chastain as the titular character, there are a number of unanswered questions which dramatically hobble this film almost from the get-go, making it seem almost like a dramatic parody (if such a thing exists) of the brilliant Patrick Dennis satire Little Me. Dennis, who rose to fame as the author of Auntie Mame, followed up that delicious piece with his faux autobiography of the much-married erstwhile Hollywood star Belle Poitrine, a woman who seemed to invite tragedy, at least insofar as choosing spouses occurred. (Little Me was itself musicalized and provided Sid Caesar a celebrated starring vehicle as he portrayed all of Poitrine’s many husbands). Jolene, unlike Little Me, doesn’t have a laugh in its bones, and that deadly earnestness sinks the film emotionally, as we travel a smarmy and tortured series of events with a heroine who has promise, but who seems to be almost gravitationally pulled toward unhealthy relationships.

Jolene the film and the character wander through an anecdotal series of events that gives the film individual sparks of dramatic energy but which deprives us from ever getting the ultimate answer to the question that underlies all of the epochal events Jolene goes through in a tumultuous decade, namely, why exactly are these things happening to her? When she gets married to a hapless shnook when she’s only 15, we at least get the reason: she’s escaping from a brutal series of foster homes she’s been placed in. But after she gives in to her husband’s lecherous uncle’s sexual demands, and then indeed begins enjoying them, we’re off on a melodramatic series of interrelationships that just seem to happen willy-nilly. It becomes especially bizarre that a series of at least relatively well of men just basically offer Jolene the moon without a second’s thought. Is it her red hair? Her charming smile? The film never really gives us any answers and it makes the events almost silly seeming after a while.

Deprived of a comprehensible, logical story, Jolene therefore rises or falls on the strength of its performances, and in that regard it is blessed by a commanding lead portrayal by Jessica Chastain, who certainly seems poised to assume A-lister status based on the strength of her work here. Whether she’s the Lolita-esque youngster, the psychiatric inmate submitting to the lesbian demands of her guard, the gangster’s moll, or the “Republican-haired” wife of a Christian millionaire, Chastain fully inhabits each and every nook and cranny of Jolene’s chameleon-like trek. The supporting cast is full of odd, but often very enjoyable, turns by a variety of great actors. Lecherous Uncle Phil is given a bit of nuance by Dermot Mulroney, and the ineffeable Theresa Russell gets to chew the scenery for a scene or two as his put upon wife, Kay. Frances Fisher skirts with self-parody as the lesbian guard, but it’s nonetheless fun to see her in such an over the top role. Rupert Friend is virtually unrecognizable as a New Orleans born tattoo artist with a penchant for scratchy rock vocals who woos and weds Jolene in Phoenix. Chazz Palminteri is wonderfully understated as the Las Vegas gangster who lavishes an elegant lifestyle on Jolene. And Michael Vartan is creepiness personified as the picture perfect Christian husband who harbors a troubling dark side.

In fact virtually every character harbors some kind of dark side throughout Jolene, including Jolene herself. What we’re privy to, then, is a fairly turgid series of events where Jolene suffers one indignity after another and by gosh and by golly her pure pluck pulls her through. Here’s Jolene as Lolita. Here’s Jolene as the naïf submitting to the lesbian prison guard (I mean, really!). Here’s Jolene exploring her artistic side as a tattoo artist. Here’s Jolene as a gangster’s moll. Here’s Jolene attempting to blend in with uptight Bible Belters. It’s just patently ridiculous after a while, and the through line of Jolene exploring her very real drawing talent seems like a tacked on afterthought that is utilized sporadically throughout the proceedings to provide some sort of “insight” into Jolene’s fractious state of mind and heart. This sort of literal "paint by numbers" approach may work relatively well within the short confines of a popular song, but as a feature film, it amounts to too much static.

Jolene Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jolene's AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1 just misses the mark of high definition excellence, perhaps due to its relatively smaller budget. This film is all over the place geographically, and perhaps ironically with its image quality as well. Several scenes bristle with really sharp and clear imagery, with excellent fine detail and nicely saturated color, and some of the location footage is really gorgeous looking. Other scenes, notably some in the psychiatric institution, almost seem as if they belong in another film. They're overly soft and the image almost seems intentionally desaturated. The bulk of the film certainly looks acceptable to very good, and few will have any major complaints overall about the image quality here. But Jolene occasionally at least has the look of a made for television movie, with a sort of middling and bland image quality that certainly isn't horrible by any standards, but really isn't mind-blowingly fantastic either.

Jolene Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jolene's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is really good as far as it goes, with excellent fidelity and really nice dynamic range, but its immersive opportunities are simply hobbled by the nature of the film itself, which is really kind of a quiet, dialogue driven piece. We do get nice moments of surround activity in several sequences, and there's fine attention to detail paid in placing ambient environmental effects around the sound field. The film has a huge array of source music underscore utilized throughout the story (though strangely Parton's "Jolene" isn't included), and those all sound fantastic. Dialogue is clean and clear, though always anchored front and center. The balance between all elements is artfully handled, and while Jolene doesn't offer a bunch of "wow" moments for sonic overkill, what's here is enjoyable and very well done.

Jolene Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Feature Commentary by Dan Ireland. This is an enjoyable and surprisingly emotional commentary from director Ireland, who needs to be credited for getting a star making performance out of Chastain if for nothing else. He talks about the shoot as well as adapting the source material and there's a sweet coda dedicated to his Mother near the end.
• Interviews offer some nice moments with most of the principal cast. There's a great conversation between Dan Ireland and Jessica Chastain (SD; 20:55) where they talk about how she got cast in the role and how they proceeded to explore the character. Theresa Russell (SD; 2:26) finds herself unable to really adequately describe Aunt Kay's control freak nature, so she simply jumps into character for a moment to show what she's like. Dermot Mulroney (SD; 4:22) talks about how Uncle Phil, despite his lechery, is actually a really nice guy. Michael Vartan (SD; 6:05) describes working on a indie as "guerilla filmmaking" and announces he's better cut out for this kind of feature than a mainstream film.
• Bloopers (SD; 3:37) has some funny line-fluffing (a lot by Vartan, who also makes weird chirping noises when he blows a line).
• Trailer

Jolene Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jolene is kind of a meandering mess of a film, too melodramatic for its own good and without a clear through-line helping us to understand this intriguing character. Too much seems to fall into Jolene's lap, including an awful lot of calamity, as if she's almost a female version of Candide attempting to find her best of all possible worlds. But if you can put aside the often ludicrous aspects of the plot, there are some great performances to be had here, including a nice bevy of turns by a fantastic supporting cast. The main draw of this film is indubitably the incredible work of Jessica Chastain, who rises above the film's flaws to deliver a really memorable portrayal that will stay with viewers long after the details of the film itself fade from memory. For Chastain if for no other reason Jolene is Recommended.