Wise Blood

This horrifying movie about small town America's obsession and saturation with religion is based on Flannery O'Connor's novel of the same name. With a ridiculous original score it seems perhaps a dark comedy about the illness which so fully plagues the South in the name of Jesus. A young man returns from a stint in the army to find his childhood home abandoned and a new interstate dumping country folks into the city. The protagonist soon ends up in the city himself, and in the midst of a spiritual crisis he is flung from the arms of a godless prostitute to a preacher con artist father/daughter pair. It seems that this world is a mean, lonely place with God or not. The young man's life goes downhill as he kills a man, loses his car, and becomes both blind and more insane. I suppose this slow, confined story could have its place in cautionary tales about America but perhaps its message lacks clarity and concision. Worth watching if you have an interest in American literary history, but boring at times and maybe a little too true to the novel to make a compelling film.

Um?
2 out of 5
Buy this film: Wise Blood

Plot: 2
Imagery: 2
Originality: 2
Soundtrack: 1
Overall: 2