I forget who it was, but one reviewer (maybe Ebert) of “Junebug” noted that all of the major characters in this film had made some kind of secret accommodation with the rest of the family, and that accommodation was the key to understanding the characters’ motivations, reactions and behaviours.
Most Hollywood movies never reveal these hidden arrangements. A movie like “The Blind Side” presents each character as if they exist only at face value. Leah Ann Tuohy just wants to do good for this poor boy, Michael Oher. Oher shows his gratitude by plowing his opponents, especially when, we are given to understand, he imagines them threatening his saintly benefactor.
In real life, the hidden arrangement here is with the Tuohy family, and Michael Oher, all of whom know better, but accept the distortions of the movie because they flatter, and the movie makers, who distort the reality of Michael Oher’s relationship with the Tuohys because it makes a better story.
Nobody, it seems, cares. A lot of people will tell you openly that they would rather have the good story.
The first time I saw “Junebug”, I found the story somewhat baffling, in a good way. A film can baffle because it lacks inner coherence, and because the writers and directors cheat in order to increase the suspense, or try to make something more shocking than it really is. That is a weakness. But a strong film can baffle because it presents characters and situations that echo real life characters and situations that also baffle us. When Johnny hurls his wrench at his brother near the end of “Junebug”, we are baffled even though the film has prepared us for this scene– it makes perfect sense given the character of Johnny and his uncomfortable, acutely disturbing accommodation with his family. But we’re baffled as to why it comes out in that impulsive gesture, just as we would be in real life. We’re baffled with the characters, not at the characters.
If you look closely at your own family, you wouldn’t be shocked to realize that it also has a lot of secret accommodations.
My own take on the wrench? He resents Johnny for being the loved one, the favorite son; everything he does is blessed, as when his mother tells Johnny “there aint a blessed thing wrong with you” in a kind of strange, creepy scene, that nevertheless makes perfect sense, even though he is the one who wants nothing more than to escape his family.
“Junebug” is the best film I have ever seen about the split in American culture, between the rural conservatives and coastal elites.