A brief, carefully shot rape scene involving 12-year-old Dakota Fanning made this humid drama about an at-risk adolescent in the Alabama backwoods of the late 1950s a
cause scandale at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Flouting ridiculous accusations of "kiddie porn," the scene eventually arrived in theaters intact, and it's the strongest moment in a handsomely produced but unintentionally risible film that mistakes high grotesquerie for high gothic.
Lewellen (Fanning) lives in a rundown house in some unnamed Alabama town where deadly snakes slither through the tall grass, black folks play the blues raw and hard and the watering hole is best place for...
Released:
2008
Rated:
R
Length:
98 mins