BoomerDT It has absolutely nothing to do with Jayne and the car she was killed in is mentioned only because Robert Duvall's character {Jim Caldwell} is the retired patriarch of a wealthy Alabama family, who spends his spare time listening to police scanners and then going out to visit crash sites. He was a medic in WW1 and must be fascinated with grisly physical injuries. It's never mentioned how the Caldwell family made their money but they have enough that 2 of his sons, Skip {Thornton} & Carroll {Bacon}, live at home and don't have to work. They were each combat veterans in WW2 and now, almost 25 years after the war they seem to spend most of their time drinking beer and smoking dope. They have another brother, Jimbo, who was also a WW2 veteran who didn't see combat but is the responsible brother, who nevertheless is envious that he didn't get to fight as his brothers did. They also have a hot looking sister, Donna {Katherine LaNasa} who had been Miss Alabama years ago and is now married to Neal Baron, a former NFL player who now owns several car dealerships in Atlanta and drinks prodigious amount of beer. The Caldwell family learns that that Jim's estranged wife and their mother Naomi has passed away in England. Her husband of nearly 20 years, Kingsley Bedford {Hurt} and his 2 grown children from a previous marriage, Philip and Camilla and accompanying him to bury Naomi. And that's about it, as far as the plot. The 2 families mingle socially and romantically, as Skip and Camilla discover they both enjoy kinkiness and Donna has a tryst with Philip. Jim reconciles with Kingsley as he takes him to an auto museum to see Jayne's wrecked car. There are some subplots briefly explored. Bacon is about a 50 year old hippie who is leading demonstrations against the Vietnam war to the chagrin of the family. He wants his son to go to college to avoid getting drafted. One of Jim's grandkids is doing acid and spikes his ice tea. The three Caldwell brothers end up bonding together at the end with a joint and beer and jump into one of Skip's muscle cars to ride off into the sunset. Thankfully director and co-writer Thornton didn't have the finish by ending up in a gruesome accident that would bring the father out to visit.It's an uneven movie, but still has some pretty good acting, a few laughs. Not sure how many more movies Robert Duvall may have left in the tank, but this is the type of role he nails. Nice time period piece. The Caldwell's enjoy their Falstaff, a popular beer of the time, gone now for many years.

bob_meg 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.

flyingtree-184-598230 This comes across as if it were written for the stage. I beg to differ with those who think this an accurate portrayal of the people and situations of the time and place. Not even close. I done been there then. Open on the setting of the entire movie. Small town Alabama in 1969. A family whose patriarch was once married to a woman that left him and married an Englishman twenty years before receives the news she has died. Also, her body accompanied by her widower husband and HIS family is coming back to Alabama for burial. Score ten points if you say this is the type of "Set-up" that multiple black comedies and more recently many more Black as in African American Comedies have been built around. This is neither. I don't honestly know whether that sentence should have started with "Unfortunately".As a result of this event the American family is brought together and many old wounds, scars and stories surface. SPOILER: The two families couple with one another like a group of drunken speed freaks playing spin the bottle at a company picnic for Searle. Well, not quite. They blather about endlessly before, after and instead of. Hey, that IS how I remember speed parties, more talking than poking. At one point Silly Bob Thornton takes off all his clothes in the woods showing what are supposed to be the 80 percent burns he suffered in a WW2 plane crash -- certain the best technique for getting some "pity p***y" I have ever seen. Finally -- and we should be thankful they don't introduce a GAY sex scene here --- VERY VERY grateful..... Robert Duvall and John Hurt, who both are widower of the same woman become bosom buddies. Remember that is just an expression. Pals. Pals with 160 some odd years between them. They take a ride over to see the eponymous Car. Whole scene could be left out, no excuse for it. Like that big ugly seed inside a Mango nobody would miss it were it not there.Next morning, they head out into the nearby forests for a bit of out of season hunting unaware that Duvall has been given some LSD in his iced tea. Now, as someone who used to sell the stuff and has taken hundreds of trips with dosages many times those used by mere mortals I can say that the Acid Trip experience of Mister Duvall is the most accurate portrayal I have ever seen in Cinema. I would guess that he, also, has left this world of Newtonian certainties more than once. Oh, that I could find a ticket today. Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio? Who cares? Tim Leary... Timmy.... Timmy.... My kingdom for a Collie -- a transcendental Lassie to fetch you back... Timmy .... Timmy.... Oh, the movie ends.Like that.

mickmade Great actors, awful directing, they call them movies because they are supposed to move, this one doesn't and it has the wrong music and poor uneven cinematography.Billy Bob, stick to acting. This movie is not entertaining. Oscar and this movie in the same sentence is an insult to Oscar.I'm not a voting member of the Academy. If I were, I would have to give it two thumbs down for blatant pandering to the academy while ignoring the ticket-buying public.Some good music from the 60's might at least give you the feeling of the era this movie is supposed to be in and moved things along a little better. I have never known a WW2 veteran that was Hippie, Kevin Bacon's part was unbelievable. Ron White was Ron White.