"Jolene" is, in spite of a lot of previous comments, better than average. Jessica Chastain, playing the eponymous character is outstanding. Yes, her journey is repetitive in a way, and she never seems to learn from her experiences and continues to make terrible decisions in her life. I tend to assume that this is the point of the story. Every other part in the movie is somewhat small, as Jolene moves on and never goes back. But good work is done here by, among others, Frances Fisher, Theresa Russell, Denise Richards, and Shannon Whirry. Rupert Friend and Dermot Mulroney's characters were creepy in the extreme, which probably makes it more fun to play them. There are no likable characters in this film, including Jolene, and this is probably what turns off so many reviewers.
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smatysia6 December 2015
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rmax30482328 April 2013Jessica Chastain, as Jolene, a pale, freckled girl with wild red hair, is only fifteen when the story begins in South Carolina. She's been abandoned by her parents and has grown up as a ward of the state. She's an appealing, impulsive, sexy girl with a casual sense of stoicism.
Let's see. She drives her first boyfriend to suicide. Her second beau is a bigamist pretending to be much younger than he is. He goes to prison for statutory rape. Chastain is sent to a correction facility where one of the staff, Frances Fisher, falls in love with her. They get it on together in private and Chastain doesn't mind a bit being loved by a woman. You get used to it.
Fisher endangered her own career by smuggling Chastain out of the Home For Wayward Girls and hides her in her own home, warning her not to leave the house for any reason "until this blows over." A quickly bored Chastain leaves anyway and hitch hikes to Arizona, servicing a couple of truck drivers along the way.
I'll make the rest of it quickly. Chastain is courted by a failed guitar player and rock singer who now runs a tattoo parlor. He marries her, but he turns out to be already married and is also a drug dealer.
She hitches to Las Vegas, where she is spotted pole dancing by Mr. Big, Chazz Palmintieri. She lives with him in a penthouse overlooking Las Vegas until Palmintieri dies a natural death from bullets.
Next, ho hum, she hitches to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she is spotted as a waitress and courted by a very odd-mannered man whose family "owns half of Tulsa." The diamond in her engagement ring is the size of the Rock of Gibraltar. She marries him and has his baby, but he's a rude, religious fanatic and beats her. The wicked family kicks her out and takes the baby.
Last scene: Now all glamorized and un-hicked by make up and a sense of comme il faut, she wanders the streets of Hollywood, hoping to become a famous movie star, go back to Tulsa, and reclaim her baby.
The performances are okay. Nobody torpedoes this movie. And Chastain is quite good in the central role, as is Palmintieri, who finally gets a chance to project genuine sincerity. There are a couple of stereotypical figures but their appearances are brief.
It's nicely photographed and directed, and the script gets the job done, but at heart it's the story of a woman abused in every way by men and by the system that's supposed to provide shelter from them. The men are all cads or crooks, and the system works for the wealthy. And the climactic scenes with Chastain's son, when she is declared an unfit mother because of her "checkered past". My God, do we have to go through that again? What is this, Lifetime Movie Network? Why not change the title from "Jolene" to "Please Don't Take My Baby!"
Well, the first half of the movie, the part shot in South Carolina, isn't bad at all, a tangled web of American values. And the weaknesses of the men are somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that Jolene herself isn't really a very admirable figure. She starts out dumb and naive, humping rednecks in pick up trucks and whatnot. But every time she meets a new suitor, none of whom she loves, and moves in with him, it's another step up the ladder of wealth and status. "The money doesn't matter," but she keeps getting richer and richer because she's beautiful and willingly shares beds.
We've seen much of this before. Other versions are usually shot inexpensively in Canada, starring nobody you ever heard of, but they're all supported by the same familiar, sagging spine. And at the end, the protagonist walks bravely alone, smiling, optimistic. She still has her dreams.
It's by no means an offensive movie. It's a little reminiscent of "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore", the far superior "Wanda," and a number of other stories of women on their own. But it is repetitious, and finally boring, in its formulaic way. -
punishmentpark28 January 2014Yes, Jessica Chastain can act, and does so very well in 'Jolene', but that doesn't make this a good film, necessarily. In episodes, the viewer witnesses the (bad) choices she makes and what harm comes to her. There seems to be no redeeming quality to any of it, from her early days of abuse (this begins before she gets married, but is captured in just a single voice-over sentence) to her final false (?, I can only assume; the movie ends there) dream of being a movie star and reclaiming her child... The resilience of Jolene's character is both impressive and hard to watch. And to learn that big money (the Tulsa parents) is seemingly the only way to (finally) find out about Jolene's past and get her back in touch with the 'proper authorities' is a confrontation with an utterly sad truth, let alone with the equally sad fact that the rich Tulsa husband (among others) can get away with such violence.
But why tell such a story? I would guess to tell the tragic life story of a young woman, put in a few life lessons for young, fragile women, criticize certain life styles and institutions...? Yes, I think I could get that, but as I tried to explain before, things are off. Jolene doesn't learn, bad folks get away with their mischief, and institutions too. In the end she escapes once again into a sad fantasy - where will she go from there? On top of that, some parts tend to the exploitation genre (while this film is trying hard to fit the drama genre, I believe) and the separate episodes are mostly rather shallow, stating facts in an up tempo manner.
I still can't get my head around all of it, and / but I don't know if that is a good thing or not... 6 out of 10 for now.
Oh, and this was based on a fictional tale with the same title, which was in turn based on the song 'Jolene'. And yes, that, in turn, was based on something, too. -
parkerr863024 September 2011I have not read the E.L. Doctorow novel this is based on, but I'm guessing the film takes a lot of liberties, as Doctorow is usually more sophisticated than this. Jolene (Jessica Chastain) is a Southern-fried child bride who starts a torrid affair with her husband's uncle. She lands in a juvenile detention facility where a butch lesbian guard has designs on her. She escapes, drifts across the country having sex with a variety of sleazy creeps, and becomes a tattoo artist and a Vegas stripper. She finally marries a born-again Christian who (of course) turns out to be a fanatical, wife-beating lout (it has been light-years since we've seen a positive depiction of a Christian in a movie). The plot sounds like an homage to a dumb, 1970s drive-in flick, but JOLENE takes itself too seriously for that, which is its downfall. This is not fun or entertaining---it is ugly garbage loaded with nudity, graphic (and unerotic) sex scenes, and scenes of violence against women. I am astonished by the positive reviews here at IMDb that claim the film is "sweet" and "charming"---I saw none of those qualities. But since others did, judge for yourself.
On a trivia note, a couple of scenes were shot in my old stomping grounds of Prescott, Arizona. At the time, local news reported that Donald Sutherland was in the film. Since he is nowhere to be seen in the finished product, I must conclude this report was in error, or else he had a cameo that ended up on the cutting room floor, which was probably all the better for him. -
betyouaint26 June 2009Think "Monster" but much more lighthearted and charming. I watched this movie with neither preconception nor hype; in fact I almost overlooked it. From the opening scenes I even imagined it may be a comedy and it does indeed contain many amusing moments that naturally emerge from the story and bring a smile to the face. Darker moments sober the viewer throughout but the narrative fails to linger long enough to bring the mood down, and despite the trials and tribulations, the overall feeling of the movie, like Jolene herself, is quite upbeat. It's hard to find much fault with "Jolene"; it is what it is. Unfortunately, what it's not is an hour longer. I could have easily sat through more in the hope of a more conclusive ending or just to see where the road might take her next. However, Jolene's erratic journey through life is ongoing and the lack of a Hollywood finale serves this movie well. If you're bored of blockbuster bombardment then "Jolene" could well provide a refreshing antidote.
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jmillerdp29 April 2013*** SOME SPOILERS ***
This is one of those films where you're not sure what the point is. The film is based on the E.L. Doctorow story "Jolene: A Life," published in The New Yorker. You can go to their site and read the synopsis without subscribing. Interestingly enough, the synopsis is almost exactly what happens in the movie.
It is all about a naive young woman who goes through 10 years of mostly torment at the hands of numerous men. She doesn't change that much over that time, and is just as bad a judge of character at the end as she was at the beginning.
So, why watch this? I don't know. It is competently made, with the cinematography and (then-newcomer) Jessica Chastain's excellent performance being the highlights. Admitedly, director Dan Ireland is very faithful to the story, so maybe the problem is with Doctorow. I am not willing to subscribe to The New Yorker to read beyond the synopsis, so I am going to have to guess that the story is where the problem is. The question then would be: Why make this in the first place? I really don't know.
****** (6 Out of 10 Stars) -
jmsquibb2 February 2012This movie is very dark but it shows what life can be like for some children growing up in foster care. It is easy to forget that Jolene is actually a child when she gets married the first time. Jolene is a child without a childhood and she uses sex to get what she wants/needs. Jolene does not seem to make life happen, she just goes through life letting things happen to her. It seems that she just wants to be loved and cared for. However, she does not know how to do that the right way. There were a lot of sex and nude scenes. I am not sure that all of it was necessary. Many scenes are difficult to watch if you are a woman and it is easy to feel sad for the character Jolene. I had hoped that Jolene would have a happy ending. However, it is meant to be realistic and not wrapped in a sweet little package. It was okay to watch once but I would not watch it again.
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uwsupergirl-701-30443527 January 2018I love Jessica Chastain so I decided to give this movie a try. I had a difficult adolescence so I thought I'd identify with the character. But I should have known-this film was written by men and therefore, the character lacks depth and the edge that a girl who truly went through what this character is portrayed to have dealt with would truly develop. Throughout the movie, older male characters are shown as benefactors rather than victimizers of Jolene, and she is shown as not a confused teenager who out of desperation uses her sexuality and attention from much older adults to survive in otherwise bad circumstances but a horny nymph who sometimes acts robotic but is also seductive and not much of an emotional being. She gets to survive using her sexuality as she's basically raped, and has orgasms, according to this movie. The movie starts with Jolene, at 15, marrying a rather young man named Micky, a sweet and rather awkward man who really does seem to care for her. When the sleazy uncle of the boy takes a predatory interest in Jolene, she finds this appealing and succumbs as a willing participant, which leads to disaster and a series of other adults who find Jolene irresistible and she uses them for her own comfort and survival, which DOES happen in real life, but not without much worse consequences generally. She enjoys art and art is another tool employed to try to make the perversion of this teenager as more legit. This movie portrays the systematic exploitation of a young girl as no big deal and not damaging or hurtful to this young girl- in fact quite the opposite...the writing attempts to show her as "artsy" and steering her own ship instead of a victim who has serious problems. It was only after watching 3/4 of this movie and being disgusted that this continued, that I checked and verified for myself that the writers of this movie were men. Well OF COURSE they were! Who else would write a female lead who has been mistreated by men and had to use her own sexuality with sleazy older men to survive and ENJOYS IT and THRIVES instead of becoming a broken and sad drug addict or worse. What I ended up taking from the movie is that this is a movie for men (and women) who would do things like the men (and women) in the movie to young girls and justify it as if the girl is enjoying and benefitting from this attention and behavior-a way to live. Jolene is shown as mainly a sexual being, a conquest, and a willing participant in her own abuse and exploitation, but not as a person with many feelings outside of sexuality. Even the "religious guy" is a pig and a rapist. But after being anally raped, and showing a tad distress for A MOMENT, she's fine and happy. Her range of emotions were confined within very shallow male's idea of what it's like to be a female, especially a female who has a history like Jolene's. After years of abuse, she has a child, and is IMMEDIATELY fulfilled and believes in God. Then after being beaten enough shows the fortitude to move on, but just as fast as she found God in her child, she gives up on him and fantasizes about going back someday, embraced by her son now as a movie star. That's redemption? What a load of crap. I found it actually rather disgusting but typical of male-created female lead. Don't waste your time, especially if you care about real stories about the female experience.
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aironenick24 January 2018This movie is ok most of the way through, a little scattered storyline, not much versatility, and they took every opportunity to get her naked. Towards the end it really goes off the rails and jumps the shark at the sodomy scene. With all of that I would still recommend this movie simply on Jessica Chastain's performance. She was amazing in her debut and it shows that, with her huge success now, she has been an outstanding actress from her first movie. This movie is probably a 4 without her and I can't wait to see her in more and more movies in the future.
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Allen-Uncle-Mont-Williams28 February 2012This was one of those movies where it doesn't really matter if the story sucks or if the film itself was poorly made. I could care less about any of that stuff because watching Jessica Chastain on screen is just delightful in its own way.
The story was alright, although I'm not sure there was an actual story here. All I gathered from the so called plot was that this woman (Jolene) didn't know what to do with herself and just kinda wandered & winged it through life on a daily basis.
This movie should have been the female version of "The Truman Show" where the audience can just follow around a clueless human being for no particular reason. This is a wannabe reality show disguised as a feature film and the only thing missing is SNOOKI and that's all there is too it.... -
You can certainly understand why Jessica Chastain took this role. I mean, what actress just into her 30s wouldn't? It's not only the lead in a relatively substantial production, the whole movie revolves around her character and she's on screen for almost every second of it. It's a part that goes from 15 to 25, from roadside whore to rich man's wife, from dependent little girl to supposedly independent woman. There's also a decent bit of nudity, which is sadly something many actresses need to indulge in for Tinsel Town to take notice of them. If Chastain had any hesitation about this job, I'm sure everyone from her parents to her agent to the little Korean lady at the nail salon told her that this motion picture was going to make her career. There are just two little problems. One, Jolene isn't really any good. The story is shallow and contrived and is more like a simulation of life than real existence. Two, Chastain is not the right kind female for this sort of part.
This largely plot less tale is about Jolene (Jessica Chastain), a red headed girl from a life of foster parent abuse who at 15 married a young man desperate enough to take her as a bandage for his wounded heart. She almost immediately betrays him for his older smarmy uncle, which destroys everything and sends Jolene out into a cruel world that is never quite cruel enough to leave a mark on her. She passes from a lesbian guard at a juvenile mental home to a charismatic tattoo artist to a mobster to the scion of a wealthy Oklahoma family. Along the way, Jolene only gets a little bit wiser but never any more sympathetic or likable.
Part of it is that the film assumes the audience will automatically identify with and root for Jolene, so it never does anything to make her any more appealing than her physical attributes. Jolene isn't all that nice and she isn't good in any meaningful sense of the word and this movie never gives the viewer any reason to emotionally invest in what happens to her. When bad things happen, it's like watching a rotting house collapse from a distance. It's momentarily diverting but you don't care about the house and you're not close enough to it to feel any danger or risk.
Part of it is that Jolene does not appear to be happening in any kind of real world. The character is put in all these fake, fabricated situations that are like bad reproductions of actual things. The world has strip clubs but the one Jolene works at is classier and more refined than any strip club on Earth or any other planet. This story takes place in the present but is based on an understanding of family and divorce law that is straight out of the 1950s. And though Jolene is twice thrust into situations of great wealth after periods of practically living on the street and turning tricks to get by, she never thinks to stash any money away for herself.
Part of it is that Jolene, while the center of this movie, is so passive through the very end of the story. She barely does anything. Stuff happens to her and she hardly even reacts to most of it.
And as mean as it is to point out, part of it is that Jessica Chastain is not beautiful enough to make Jolene believable. The most defining characteristic of Jolene is she's supposed to be so drop dead gorgeous that lovers fall helpless at her feet. Chastain pulls that off when Jolene is 15 and radiates the sort of raw, unconscious sensuality that turns middle aged men into idiots. But as the character ages and has to lose that Lolita-like openness, it gets harder and harder to buy that Jolene is so darn irresistible. Few guys would kick Chastain out of bed for eating crackers, but she's not that good looking or at least not that kind of good looking. In fact, if Chastain were physically stunning in her early 30s, she wouldn't have been able to convincingly play someone sexually precocious and half her age.
The direction and the acting here are good enough. It's the story itself that isn't worth anyone's time. You'd be better off listening to Dolly Parton's "Jolene" than watching this. -
totalwonder23 June 2008Of all the films I saw at the 2008 Seattle International Film Fest, "Jolene" is the one that stayed with me. Jessica Chastain gives a multi layered, complex, superlative performance as the title character. A girl drifting through her life looking for love in all the wrong places. The film stays away from sentimental payoffs giving it a very distinctive tone. Are we suppose to sympathize with Jolene? Dan Ireland, the director, leaves that to us in another honest and wonderful tale of longing and hope. From Rene Zellwegger in "The Whole Wide World" to Joan Plowright in "Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont" Dan Ireland has shown a remarkable flair to bring out the best on his female characters and more. Frances Fisher gives an Academy Award worthy performance in a part so far away from anything I've ever seen her do that it took me a while to realize it was her. Michael Vartan, Dermot Mulroney, Chazz Palmintieri and in particular Rupert Friend give vivid, powerful performances. "Jolene" is unique in a year of sequels and TV adaptations. I can't wait to see it again. Congratulations Mr. Ireland and thank you for your passionated and coherent commitment to the independent soul.
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... just recently watched this film... really enjoyed it... then read two divergent reviews.. one thought it was great.. other really panned it... thought both reviews had merit ... it's that kind of movie
... in any event Jessica Chastain is gorgeously-charming. -
luvmydogiz28 December 2013I don't see what the point of this film was or understand how it was so highly rated or acclaimed. It was at terrible movie with a young girl who was terribly misguided, repeatedly degraded and exploited throughout her entire life. Despite any better judgment, she never learns, never overcomes, and ends with her smiling as she thinks of some delusional fantasy that, based on the story, will never happen. It's clear this was written and directed by men because it's all exploitation, violence against women, and gratuitous nudity. The only reason I watched this is because I recognized some actors' names but wow, so disappointed I wasted the time to watch this.
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philzone-506003 October 2018I didn't know what to expect from this film, but I found it to be very well written and acted. It was believeable and moved at a great pace. It kind of reminded me of Sissy Spachek in Coal Miners Daughter.
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The main reason for watching this is simply that it is the first film by an actor who has proved to be one of the top in the field. And she shows from the start that she has always been one to watch. The character goes through a variety of changes, largely, but not only, of maturation and Chastain virtually plays different characters across the film, exuberantly traversing a range of incarnations, beginning as a plain, abused yet naive country teen and going through more than one form of sophistication, largely fortuitously. The story itself is somewhere between the Perils of Pauline and Candide; structure is not a big concern here, just that the protagonist go through many trials. The then unknown Chastain plays these changes like a musical prodigy given successive pieces by very different composers and playing through each flawlessly. One physical note might seem to focus more on her appearance than her talent, but in fact is slightly uncanny. Early on, she shows her breasts, which are small, uninviting, those of a naive, half-formed young woman. Yet later, in an erotic sequence, she shows those very same breasts - physically unchanged, in no way augmented - and they are suddenly entrancing, womanly. The only change is internal, in the character's sense of her self at each moment. Not all of the story makes sense or is gracefully developed; Chastain is, in a word, better than her material here. But she is already the major talent now known to all.
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staciarose2029 August 2021Stuck in the foster system, desperate for love and a way out. Only she hits walls every time. Makes bad choices. There's no happy ending, but she has hope. I wish she'd escaped with her child.
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alex_smithee_on_film14 June 2008After seeing this film at it's world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival I have to report that I am very disappointed. This is a truly awful movie. There is no plot or overall story to the film. It is just about Jolene travelling around the country going from guy to guy. She learns nothing about her experiences and leaves us feeling absolutely no sympathy towards her character whatsoever, in fact our lack of sympathy for her comes very early on in the movie and lasts for the entire duration despite one attempt near the end which seems very rushed and forced. As Joelene moves on in her journey she comes across numerous characters and different situations, each of these situations being the same as the last one and leaving us wondering if this film is actually going to go anywhere or not, or if a plot or story is going to unfold at some point. The makers of this film had access to a great cast. I've seen these actors shine in other movies which makes it even more shocking to me that they decided to take a part in this film, none of the roles did the actors talents any justice. The script is terrible and feels like it has been written by someone who has not experienced real life. The dialogue is very simplistic and the characters and situations seem very cliché. I've seen these same characters and same events in other films, but done much better. There is nothing unique about any of it. The wardrobe, set dressing and makeup also seems to be very amateur, camp and over dramatic. One character in particular, 'Coco' has been made to look exactly like Johnny Depp, reminiscent of the way Depp looked in his early years, which is very cringe making. The actor playing Coco also looked very much like Orlando Bloom and so I spent much of his screen time trying to decide whether it was him or not, due to the actor's bad accent which got me thinking 'Is this Orlando Bloom trying to do an American accent?', however I was wrong, it wasn't Bloom. The actress playing Jolene wasn't that bad and I would like to see her in more films, however the script and directing could not save her on this occasion. I would like to see what she could do with a solid script and a better director. There was absolutely no flare from the director, it was very conventional and safe movie making. The script was bad, but the director could have made something a lot better out of it, unfortunately he failed to do so. I know this film was based on a book, but I am judging this movie by itself and I am afraid that it falls very short. If you are looking for an entertaining movie which will take you on a journey, this is not the film for you. I've seen these characters and scenarios before. It's like 'Forest Gump' with a woman, and done badly. This has TV Movie written all over it.
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abelardo6428 June 2008Jessica Chastain gives one of those performances that make history in this wonderful Dan Ireland film based on a short story by Doctorow. She goes through a life of radical changes, so much so that it could be considered a multi character study if not for the amazing truth in Chastain's portrayal. The exteriors may change and circumstances may appear diametrically opposite but at its very center she's the same girl we met at the beginning, never ever betraying that spirit or that thirst for life. Like in Dan Ireland's "The Whole Wide World", that launched the career of Rene Zellwegger, "Jolene" may do the same for Jessica Chastain. I don't think I'll see a better performance this year.
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gradyharp9 February 2013JOLENE is an adaptation of one of EL Doctorow's short stories from his collection 'Sweet Land Stories'. That story was one of the few forgettable ones in that collection and makes one wonder why it was singled out for a screenplay by Dennis Yares. Doctorow is one of America's most important writers (Welcome to Hard Times, The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, Loon Lake, The Water Works, The March, City of God, etc) and this is surely not one of his finest moments. Made in 2008, it did give Jessica Chastain an opportunity for exposure (as in "total'!) so perhaps that is why it is making the rounds again - before Oscars....
Jolene is a 15 year old girl, at story's beginning, who knows nothing about her parents and who marries a geek boy (Zeb Newman) whose own parents are mysteriously dead and lives with relatives who are odd - the aunt (Theresa Russell) is angry with the world and uncle (Dermot Mulroney) is a pedophile: Jolene ruins her first relationship by having an affair at age 16 with the uncle , her 'husband' commits suicide, and she ends up a juvenile delinquent in a 'home' for wayward girls. There she is courted by staff member Cindy (Frances Farmer) who helps her new young lover escape. Jolene runs away to hit the road hitchhiking (selling favors along the way), and ends up in a desert drive-in where she meets and marries a tattoo artists Coco (Rupert Friend) who is a drug dealer on the side and Jolene steps out of another bad relationship. Making her way across the country she stops in to work as a stripper and is noticed by a rich man (Chaz Palminteri) from Las Vegas who shows Jolene wealth and love but is murdered by a rival gang from New York. Once again she hits the road to end up in Tulsa, OK where she is courted by a sicko right wing evangelistic wealthy boy (Michael Vartan) who marries her despite his wealthy parents concerns, gets her pregnant, then throws Jolene's past in her face, claiming their newborn child as his own - Jolene being a used and unfit mother. In desperation Jolene moves to Hollywood where she follows her one talent - art - and dreams of becoming a movie star.
Dan Ireland directs this bit of treacle and an outstanding cast makes the best of the script they're given. Chastain shows evidence of the superb acting skills that now yearly are becoming more apparent. But as a movie, JOLENE Is a contrived little mess - and it makes us wonder how the powerful EL Doctorow could be so diluted.
Grady Harp -
cosmo_tiger27 April 2011When do you know for sure you are in love? After a failed marriage at a young age, Jolene (Chastain) deals with getting over the past and finding herself. She sets off on a journey across the country looking for what is missing in her life. This is a very, very good coming-of-age story, also kind of inspiring in a way, no matter what happens to her she never gets down and keeps pushing forward. On the other hand it is also pretty depressing to watch what this girl goes through. This movie does a great job of showing what a girl, who was raised as an orphan and spent her youth between the home and foster parents, acts like. Though it's not her first movie the woman who plays Jolene (Jessica Chastain) is fantastic in this. It's not an easy role, especially with as much sex and nudity involved (nothing gratuitous, it actually helps define the character), along with the ranges of emotion she must portray. I'm really surprised she didn't get any recognition for this. I don't want to give too much away, but I really, really enjoyed this movie. I give it an A.
Would I watch it again? - I did already. -
SnoopyStyle16 July 2015Orphan Jolene (Jessica Chastain) marries nerdy Mickey to get away from the foster system. They live with his Uncle Phil (Dermot Mulroney) and Aunt Kay (Theresa Russell). It's Jolene's sweet 16 and Uncle Phil takes her to bed. They have a secret affair. Kay catches them and throws her out. Mickey commits suicide and she is sent to a juvenile mental asylum. Uncle Phile is sentenced to 18 months and she catches the eye of lesbian nurse Cindy (Frances Fisher). She convinces Cindy to help her escape and then she escapes from Cindy and South Carolina forever. She continues her winding journey through the wide ranging dark side.
I can't buy Chastain as a 16 year old, let alone 15. It's a problem because her relationship with Mulroney comes off as romantic when it needs to come off as creepy. It's funny when Jolene says she acts 10 years older than her age. She's actually even older than that. The first part could be compelling but her age just gets into the way.
The story meanders with too many pit stops along the way. I almost gave it a pass thinking it's a true story but no! It's not. It just makes the meandering writing unforgivable. The movie should be split in two. The first part with a younger actress playing teen Jolene up to and including Cindy. Chastain can play the adult Jolene with Brad. That part is very compelling. Chastain shows her acting skills playing her role with abandon. -
Red_Identity7 March 2013This is the problem with the film- it feels like emotional torture-porn of some sort. It keeps on going through the same scenario over and over again. If you've seen the first 20 minutes, you've pretty much seen it all. It's stuck on an endless cycle of despair. I get that's the point of this character-study, but it's just incredibly repetitive and predictable. Every time Jolene enters another aspect of her "journey", you just know how it will all end. As it is though, it's not exactly a bad film just because it's well executed, even if the script really isn't good. The performances are solid, but it serves as an amazing introduction to Jessica Chastain, the most exciting new face in Hollywood. It's her film, and it's because of her that my grade isn't any lower. She carries the film flawlessly, hitting all of the notes of her character, even if it's true that the script does give her the same stuff over and over again at times. See it for her, and let's all celebrate that she was able to break out as a true star.
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susandalerichardson17 March 2018I suffered this movie because I love Jessica Chastain, but OMG, what a redundant, trite pile of stereotypes. Very derivative of all the plots where the girl is good and sweet and naive and the rest of the cast (including the director of this movie) prey on her. You've got your pedophile uncle, the creepy Cindy who works at the insane asylum where raped girls apparently go, the drug addicted first husband, wife-beating second husband, the rich guy who buys Jolene's affections and insists she stop dancing the poles, and finally the wife-beating second husband who steals her child. Clearly this sad little movie was written, directed and produced by men uninterested in character depth, plotting, or creativity. Stupid and disappointing. Ugh.
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napierslogs29 April 2011"Jolene" is quite a film. It's about the journey of life for Jolene (Jessica Chastain), who is quite a character. A girl who was left to be raised by the authorities, she is itching to experience more of the world and be happy—the type of girl who could get hurt. But Jolene has an indescribable quality that makes people fall in love with her, lust after her, commit crimes for her and then go crazy, and generally in that order. Likelihood is they'll get hurt instead of Jolene.
The film strikes a remarkable balance between the quirky, comedic charms of the characters and the somber and serious situations that Jolene gets herself into. Although, as a caveat, I do recognize the critics' complaints that that balance can be quite jarring. The journey the film takes us on with this unforgettable character is a fascinating, funny and joyful one, but also at times, harrowing. Crimes of passion, crimes in the name of God, and crimes for money — all for Jolene — are all committed. No body is left unturned.
The path the film took to get to us is almost as tumultuous as that of its heroine. Tumbling through the small film festival circuit in 2008 and 2009, it didn't get a distribution deal until 2010. And then it only opened in a handful of screens. But now everybody can finally see this extraordinary film and extraordinary actress. Jessica Chastain is starring in Terrence Malick's highly-anticipated, masterpiece-to-be "The Tree of Life". It's time to meet this star-in-the-making in "Jolene".
"Jolene" captured my heart, and then attempted to stomp all over it, but the film leaves its mark, as does the character Jolene, as does Chastain. I'm still not exactly sure how to take it, but it was an amazing experience.