RETURN TO TWO MOON JUNCTION should appeal to aficionados of Southern Gothic bodice-ripping on two counts. It's a self-contained sequel that has little to do with the first film, so no one will be confused by having to pick up old plot threads. And the sex scenes are as hot and steamy as
100 degree weather in the bayous.
Bored with the world of Manhattan modeling, country-girl-at-heart Savannah (Mindy Clark) heeds the call of her Dixie heritage and hops down to Two Moon Junction for a troubled reunion with her grandmother Belle Delongpre (Louise Fletcher). This vexes her controlling boyfriend/agent Robert (Yorgo
Constantine), who knows a meal ticket when he sees one. Grandmother Belle is wracked with guilt because she castigated Savannah's mother, who then ran off and died tragically. But she's still a Southern lady of the old school, and bridles at Savannah's bold, citified ways.
Belle is particularly upset when Savannah casts an amorous eye on her grandmother's tenant, a handsome but quarrelsome sculptor named Jake (John Clayton Schafer). The trouble really begins when Mrs. Delongpre learns that Jake is the grandson of a Gilbert, a family with whom hers has feuded for
generations. Jake and Savannah discover they both had planned to purchase the house where Jake lives, and Robert arrives from out of the Yankee blue to disrupt Savannah's newly minted plan to give Jake the property. Robert tries to persuade Savannah to marry him, but she declines and, in the
process, finally achieves the emotional connection she has always sought with her grandmother. Mrs. Delongpre reveals her own past romantic tribulations--which involved Jake's grandfather--then helps the hot-tempered Jake and her headstrong granddaughter escape together, free from class
distinctions and big-city career ambitions.
The spectacle of Louise Fletcher, who won an Academy Award for her indelible role as Nurse Ratched in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, being reduced to this magnolia-blossom melodrama is indeed a sad one. Fletcher does at least maintain her dignity by actually giving a performance, whereas the
two leads do little more than jockey for camera position during the sex sessions. These are filmed like a wedding night training video run amok; between orgasms, the pretty, airheaded careerists babble interminably about priorities.
Nonetheless, RETURN TO TWO MOON JUNCTION is a particularly fine example of Southern Gothic erotica, making effective use of rain-soaked clothing, sweaty flesh, and bodies splashing in brooks. The wall-slamming sex scenes are exactly what they should be, and the Zalman King-style visuals--heavy
on the gauzy curtains and evocative lighting--are photographed with a pleasingly gossamer texture. Of course, viewers uninterested in watching two incredibly toned protagonists handling psychological crises through intensive intercourse will want to bypass the entire experience. (Extensive nudity,
extreme profanity, sexual situations.) leave a comment