Black Snake Moan

What’s the Story?

In writer-director Craig Brewer's BLACK SNAKE MOAN, Laz (Samuel L. Jackson), a hard-working farmer nursing a broken heart, stumbles across a "half-naked, half-dead white woman" (Christina Ricci) left on the quiet road next to his farm. But Rae is no ordinary young woman. She's got "the sickness" -- a burning yearning for sex that no one man can sate. Her widely known sluttiness is what landed her in the bloody state she was found in, and now Laz, a God-fearing bluesman, is ready to exorcize her of her "wickedness." Just how is he going to keep her from "getting up under" every man within county limits? By chaining her to his radiator until she repents -- or at least until his best friend, the town pastor, convinces him that it's not his Biblical duty to "fix" her.

Is It Any Good?

Many viewers will undoubtedly be offended by Brewer's representation of a still-segregated, racist South in which mentioning a black man's "size" to a white man will get you beaten to a pulp -- not to mention Ricci's personification of a promiscuous woman who just can't get enough. But Brewer has a genuine affinity for portraying Southern and African-American culture. Interlacing the drama with blues music (including footage of the legendary Son House) and necessary doses of humor (Rae's memorable encounter with a young teen looking for butter beans at Laz's farm is particularly amusing), Brewer creates a clever (im)morality tale about an unlikely (OK, ludicrous) way to heal an ailing heart.