A Branca Acorrentada

Black Snake Moan employs a provocative story premise - a black man chaining up a young white woman - to tell an intelligent and quite sweet story about a relationship between two wounded souls. It's a little like the 2002 bondage drama Secretary in that way - that film was a touching love story that happened to be between two people who liked kinky sex. There's no sex between Lazarus and Rae. This is not the Russ Meyer remake of Jungle Fever the posters are suggesting! Rae comes on to him like she does to every man but he's too kind-hearted to take advantage of her. The film does suggest at times that he may be punishing her as a substitute for his errant wife but for all his flaws, Lazarus is a good guy. And Rae is genuinely disturbed, a woman with a self-destructive need to be used and abused by men. So this is a bit more complex than the average Hollywood relationship drama, however it's not an arty psycho-drama any more than it's soft porn. Black Snake Moan is a character drama that's funny, good-natured, occasionally shocking but always entertaining. Gifted writer-director Craig Brewer, who won some acclaim for Hustle And Flow, takes some pretty twisted subject matter and finds the humour and the humanity in it. It's simultaneously taboo-breaking, thoughtful and fun.

I'd go as far as to say Black Snake Moan is the best film I've seen so far in 2007. It engaged me like nothing else I've watched this year. I do worry that the advertising material, cool as it looks, is drawing in a crowd that won't get what it expects and will put off many people who would appreciate the film. This is not a shameless attempt to whip up a controversy. While Christina Ricci stripped to her panties is not exactly unpleasant to look at for two hours, this isn't really a sexy film (she's also bruised and bloody for much of that time). Ignore the posters and teasers and give this a try and you'll find a warm and sensitive character drama that has more in common with Of Mice And Men than Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!