Junebug

Date Shown: Sunday, June 14, 2026 @ 7pm

USA, 2005, R, Color, Drama/Dramatic Comedy, 106 min

Directed by Phil Morrison; starring Embeth Davidtz, Alessandro

Nivola, Amy Adams, Ben McKenzie, Celia Weston, Scott Wilson

From his grave, Thomas Wolfe warned us all…You Can't Go Home Again.  Alas, this lesson will be reinforced for young George (Nivola).  George, the favorite son, first appears to float through life as though he has no personal baggage, only to expose that he’s kept it all in storage deep in rural Carolina (if you aren’t from here, it doesn’t matter which one).

George ventures home from the Chicago art scene to the rural south with his very refined bride of six months, Madeleine (Davidtz), to meet his down-home family.  Awkwardness doesn’t necessarily ensue so much as it occasionally stumbles into the room unannounced and overly familiar. 

As we enter this study in dichotomy, George’s family consists of sullen younger brother Johnny, (McKenzie), smokes-in-the-house-momma Peg (Weston), dad-of-few-words Scott (Wilson), and sweet young, pregnant sister in-law Ashley (Adams).  They are George’s very complicated group of baggage handlers, but they are all so very normal.  

Layered into the dichotomy are the two very different young brides, Ashley and Madeleine.  They are each smitten with and devoted to their husbands.  As if in opposition to their very existence, mother-in-law Peg has harsh judgements for them both.  Peg is never wrong, her grievances always just.  But Peg, as abrasive as she comes across, is lost in her own winter of discontent.  Peg is balanced by her salt of the earth husband, Eugene, and his comforting presence.  Every bride needs a Eugene.  The man’s thoughts and feelings are an open book, yet he is perpetually silent. 

Junebug asks us to confront the way in which society passes judgment.  Sometimes, some people (not us, surely not us) have a way of negatively judging young pregnant women in certain circumstances.  Ashley’s hopefulness and optimism can be dismissed as naiveté about her own “bad” decisions.  We may comfortably pass judgement on sullen brother’s actions and attitude because he is clearly not ready for marriage, children, or even adult life.  Johnny is trying hard in his own way and seems to have no real guidance from his family. 

Yet, will we use the same negative lens to scrutinize the actions of older brother George and his sophisticated, accomplished, well-educated bride?  They married within a week of their first meeting / sexual encounter.  Is it love at first sight?  Or is it an ambitious pair of self-absorbed young people that go after what they want in the moment?  For land sakes, she didn’t know he smokes or that he sings 19th century Methodist hymns with the voice of an angel.  Elegant Madeleine, ever gracious and genuine does seek to belong to her new family.  And George, does he deserve his seat at the golden-child throne, or was he just lucky with genetics and birth order?  Will there be true equality for George and Madeleine at this table of judgement? 

In lieu of expository dialogue, director Phil Morrison uses close shots of faces to tell the story that words will not.  He conducts each character’s solo of good intentions but stops just short allowing them to harmonize.  The volume he gives voices in the background play as though we are hearing our own memories.  There is a tone that echoes within the words left unsaid.  You can’t just simply go home again.