Posted: 02/27/2010

Provinces of Night

by Sawyer J. Lahr

Boasting an outstanding cast featuring Dwight Yoakam, Val Kilmer, Kris Kristofferson, and Hillary Duff, this small-town Tennessee family drama is in the spirit of A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004). Kristofferson plays the derelict E.F. Bloodworth who returns to the broken family he estranged. Warren (Kilmers) is the most reckless, successful, and notorious of the Bloodworth children. He drives around a strung-out gold-digger while he galavants drunk through the country side and stops for quickie with the town bicycle Louise Halfacre played memorably by Sheila Kelly.

E.F.’s grandson, Flemming (Reece Thompson), is a sensitive high school drop-out wanting to escape in his fiction writing by trying to submit hand-written manuscripts to publishers. While hisfinancial customer service father Boyd (Yoakam) is searching for Flemming’s mom in Nevada, his adolescent son is left to all the temptations a rural community has to offer in the new millennium. After upgrading to a type-writer, he finds his first real romantic distraction with Raven Halfacre (Hillary Duff), the daughter of a oxycotton-addicted call girl. Flemming does the broody impenetrable man routine, which is quickly smoothed out by the much experienced Raven. She’s not quite as tragic as Christina Ricci in Black Snake Moan (2006), but her unabashed demeanor suggests her wherewithal for more mature roles.

The southern pace of the Tennessee setting appropriately inhabits the film itself. Drugged out, drunk, remorseful, and self-defeating describe the overall disposition of Night’s characters for most of the film. What makes them dynamic is their vulnerability, which Shane Dax Taylor strips off layer by layer.

Sawyer J. Lahr is Assistant Editor for Filmmonthly.com. He blogs about Thai language, food and culture at www.GayintheLandofSmiles.com.

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