Black Snake Moan

Though saddled with an admittedly risque premise – a retired bluesman (Samuel L. Jackson) chains a young woman (Christina Ricci) to his radiator in an effort to cure her of her “wickedness” – Black Snake Moan quickly reveals itself to be a compelling, surprisingly non-expoitative piece of work that benefits from the uniformly superb performances and writer/director Craig Brewer’s distinctive sense of style. As was the case with Hustle & Flow, the filmmaker has done a fantastic job of infusing the movie’s small Southern community with a real sense of authenticity – ensuring that even the most periphery of figures receives a healthy dose of character development (ie John Cothran Jr’s local preacher and S. Epatha Merkerson’s kindly pharmacist). Of course, there’s little doubt that the film’s success rests entirely on the shoulders of Jackson and Ricci – with the two stars effectively (and seemingly effortlessly) transforming characters that could’ve come off as one-note into fully-fleshed out creations. And although Black Snake Moan is never quite as engrossing as one might’ve expected, the movie is consistently entertaining and undoubtedly a fitting follow-up to Hustle & Flow.

*** out of ****