User reviews

It's 1969 Morrison, Alabama. The Caldwell clan has 3 brothers Skip (Billy Bob Thornton), Carroll (Kevin Bacon), Jimbo (Robert Patrick), sister Donna (Katherine LaNasa), and patriarch Jim (Robert Duvall). The men are all veterans of various wars. When Jim's ex-wife and mother to the 'kids' die, her present husband Kingsley Bedford (John Hurt) and the Bedford family Phillip Bedford (Ray Stevenson), Camilla Bedford (Frances O'Connor) comes over from London to bury her back home in Alabama. The two families try to deal with the estranged relationships against a backdrop of volatile outside world of Vietnam and inner worlds. Jim is fascinated with car crashes. When a nearby town has a side show displaying Jayne Mansfield's car that she died in, Jim Caldwell takes Kingsley Bedford along for a look.

This movie is jam packed with great actors but they keep getting into each other's way. Writer/director Billy Bob Thornton lets this assemble of talents go off on their own and loses any structure or narrative. There is a lack of clarity. It needs to tell us clearly that the kids aren't actually related early and often. There is also a plodding pace to it all. They are moseying along and every once in awhile, there is an amazing scene between some of these great actors. The movie is just too uneven with the splintered groups garnering different levels of interest.

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.

Jayne Mansfield's Car has a good cast. Director-actor-writer Billy Bob Thornton is joined by other familiar names: Kevin Bacon, John Hurt, Robert Duvall, Frances O'Connor, and Robert Patrick.

The death of a clan's estranged wife and mother brings together two very different families: one rural Alabama, and the other British. You can expect fireworks to fly.

You will find odd ducks in any family, and there are more than few in these two families. Skip (Thorton) and Camilla (O'Connor) really hit it off, as do Donna (Katherine LaNasa) and Phillip (Ray Stevenson).

There is family drama and more than a bit of comedy.

Jim Caldwell (Duvall) is obsessed with car wrecks, and takes Kingsley (Hurt) to an exhibit at the dollar store that claims to have Jayne Mansfield's death car on display. Just a little Southern weirdness that spawned the title.

It was an enjoyable film.

It's obvious that Director/Writer Billy Bob has a lot on His mind. Transferring those thoughts to the page might prove somewhat difficult. Imaging said thoughts on the Screen is even more of a challenge. Although it is a valiant effort, in the end it renders itself flat but occasionally interesting.

There are far too many words in this misfire and a surprising lack of Style. 1969, at the height of very diverse opinions about the Vietnam War and Patriotism that did drive Families apart, would seem to be a fertile field for Thornton to let loose and express. But nothing here seems all that insightful or profound, more like a rambling, soft spoken rant on something about War, Family, Drugs, and Sex.

It is not a bad Movie but falls very short from being anything more than a great many great Actors given a load of lethargic points to make and for the most part it all just seems sort of Ho Hum. Not the sort of thing that these deep and touching themes deserve.

Jayne Mansfield's car does make a Cameo.

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.

I was a bit shocked at how much negative press Billy Bob Thornton's latest effort has received in the mainstream critical media. It's been called racist, homophobic, grating, and stereotypically one-note. Perhaps these reviewers couldn't take the time to appreciate the delicate patina glazed onto the top of this heavy Southern Gothic brew, not only by some stellar star turns, but from Thornton and Tom Epperson's sly, knowing script that bravely refuses to villainize any of the array of characters, no matter how crass or pig-headed their behavior first appears.

I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical of Thornton when he first appeared with the break-out "Sling Blade," even though the short it was culled from was anything but slight. I thought he'd be one of these rural "artistes" who falls back on sentimentality and clichéd characters when he didn't have much to say. Jayne Mansfield's Car, however, proves that glib assessment was dead, dead wrong.

The strongest aspect of this film is it's script, which does what every extraordinary movie does well: drops you into another place and time that---at first glance, anyway---you'd ordinarily shrug your shoulders and walk away from, then gives you every reason you shouldn't: it's populated with people who are confused, conflicted, and multi-faceted to the point where they don't seem to recognize each other any more, even after living in the same house for decades.

The casting is impeccable and Thornton has an incredibly light-touch with all of them. Robert Duvall does what he does best: providing the anchoring figure of Jim Senior with an authority and gravitas that he can express with a lift of an eyebrow. His three sons are wrought over a nice spectrum of angst: Thornton's Skip, the ne'er do well middle son who did everything right but was always a bit too "off" to be dad's shining star. That honor went to Jimbo (Jim Jr., a ferocious Robert Patrick) who played closer to the mold but never saw combat as Skip and Carroll (Kevin Bacon) did, thus considering himself a failure. Skip and Carroll live with scars and resentments from their own tours of duty in WWII and Vietnam, respectively and their anti-war sentiments continue to draw them further from Duvall, in every sense of the word.

Even though the crux of the drama revolves around the return of Duvall's wayward recently deceased wife (Tippi Hedren, a pretty darn good corpse), who divorced him for Englishmen John Hurt 15 years before, the canvas of this film is really about the tortured relations between fathers and sons, and the cost of war and death and what it "means to be a man." The War angle is particularly intriguing in that it plays out in the heart of Alabama in the late-sixties, where the malingering odor of Vietnam melts into the residues of a century of warfare, the star of which is the ghost of the Civil War.

The culture-clash aspect is amusing and well-played, but not even remotely why you should see the movie. The script ensures you know the characters so well, that all that formulaic hicks-meet-Brits stuff quickly goes by the wayside.

Thornton and Epperson's script gives each character a suitable bravura moment and most hit them out of the park, in particular Thornton, in a touching monologue delivered to Frances O'Connor in the forest and Bacon, whose hippie malcontent faces off with Duvall with quiet dignity and aplomb.

This is not a film to hang on for forced drama, but it's one you'll have a difficult time turning away from and an even harder time leaving, from the place where you so unceremoniously were dropped.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The characters were fleshed out and I felt the pain and joy of each one. The attention to detail as far as representing 1969 gave me a flashback. I have always loved the leads, Robert Duvall, Kevin Bacon and Billy Bob Thornton, but I think this was an exceptional portrayal by each person. The Brits, John Hurt and his children were also played with such passion. The statement this movie made about war and marijuana use were not in your face, but makes you think and that is not a bad thing. The music was exceptionally well made. Set in a beautiful home and beautiful scenery did not hurt in any way!

What in the hell did I just put myself through for the past hour or so???? With a cast like this movie had, you would have thought it would be good. It was not even mediocre! That is a few hours of my life I will never get back.

The story moved sooooo slooooowwwwww. And it just seemed like it was going no where. And what in the world did it have to do with Jayne Mansfield I'll never know!! They mention her name and her wreck that happened 2 years prior to when this was supposed to have taken place, it that's as far as it went.

It gave me a headache and I finally gave up and turned it off.....

Terrible script, awful directing, excruciatingly sloooowwww and has nothing to offer but pain, misery, awkwardness, suffering and stupidity.

The editor should be banned from the business and Billy Bob... please, stop... just stop. Stick to acting.

I call this an actors movie because it's all about actors trying to impress other actors. They obviously didn't make it for entertainment value. It wasn't made for the movie-going public. Its sole purpose is to be an Oscar vehicle for B.B. Thornton.

Sorry Billy Bob.... I'm not a voting member of the Academy. If I were, I would have to give you a thumbs down for blatant pandering to your professional colleagues while ignoring the ticket-buying public.

I love Duvall, and enjoy most things with BBT, but this one let me down. Many unexplained character back stories, none of the adults were happily married, and aside from that, it appeared that no one had a job, yet they could afford to live in this beautiful antebellum mansion with a maid, numerous cars and a swimming pool. Also, the characters' ages seemed off for the time period, i.e. the movie took place in 1969, and the 3 sons were all veterans of WW2 25 years earlier - they didn't look old enough, especially Bacon. I was disappointed in this movie, was hoping for something as good as Slingblade. I would have turned it off but I just kept thinking there would be some redeeming plot twist or character development, but nothing ever came.

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.

Terrible title as it has little to do with the movie and a terribly tepid film directed and jointly written by Billy Bob Thornton.

Robert Duvall is Jim Caldwell. A Great War veteran and a patriarch of a well to do Alabama family in the late 1960s, who spends his time visiting automobile accidents which the local police are happy to oblige him with.

Duvall has three sons who served in World War 2. Skip (Billy Bob Thornton) and Carroll (Kevin Bacon) seem to spend their time drinking beer, smoking dope and arguing. Both have to deal with the scars of the war. Bacon is the wild one, even though he has a son at college, he is anti Vietnam war protester and regularly gets in trouble with the police that upsets his father. The conservative Jimbo (Robert Patrick) seems to to be only responsible one. Their sister Donna is married to an ex football star but seems to be promiscuous.

The Caldwell's meet the Bedford family from England. The reason being that Jim's former wife has died and wants to be buried in Alabama. She has been living in England and was married to Kingsley Bedford (John Hurt) and he is accompanied by his two grown up children from his first marriage.

Of course there is some hesitancy between the two families because of the strained past but as they get to know each other we find out that Hurt's children are also have a dysfunctional relationship with their father which results in the daughter getting involved in some kinkiness with Skip and the son having a liaison with Donna.

The film is a shambles, it kind of rambles without much focus. There is some good acting especially from Duvall and Hurt whose characters bond as they go to see Mansfield's wreck in a store. However the film itself is a bit of a car crash.

I watched this movie with a group of regular movie goers. One person stood up and said, "If I had seen this in a theater, I would have stood up and booed"-- Two people fell asleep. Another said, this makes Ishtar look like a compelling masterpiece. The movie was painfully slow, with dreadful dialogue, shameful use of great talent, boring to the audience and a pity the director never made it to the set. Whatever was paid to the cast....next time could Billy Bob s spend less money on a dyed red wig and a few more on a script and director. The use of Jayne Mansfield's name in the title was a con to drag us in--thinking it would be clever and edgy. Beyond disappointing.

"It's not gonna kill you to talk to your kids pops. You might be surprised what happens." A family that is already at odds with each other is dealt another big blow. Their mother, who they haven't seen in a long time (because she moved to England and remarried) has died and wishes to be buried in Alabama. To make matters worse her new family is coming as well and the old and new meet for the first time. This is a difficult movie to explain. It's not bad but it's not that good either. The acting is great but the story is weak. There doesn't seem to be a flow from one scene to the other but I stayed interested. The movie is really one big contradiction to itself. If you watch it you will see what I mean. I will say that I thought the movie was OK but nothing I would watch again or bring up in the "have you seen this lately" conversation, but on the other hand it is full of some great acting and it's worth seeing for that reason alone. This is nothing more then a family trying to figure itself out and Duvall plays the same part he did in Slingblade...but this time he talks. Overall, a hard movie to explain because nothing really happens but I did think it was OK. Watch it and you will see what I mean, but it's hard to recommend. I give it a B-.

it is unfortunate that a work of such talented writing and acting is not able to succeed at the box office. if you are looking for special effects and fast action and violence then this is not probably to your liking. it is a masterful presentation of complex characters and complex relationships. realistic and accurate in it's appraisals and portrayals. provides a unique insight into life in the Southern US during this time period. performances by Duvall and Thornton are award winning and the entire supporting cast was superb. the plot does seem to ramble some but we are never brought into scenes that are not captivating and worth viewing