by SARAH ROWLAND

Any sad-sack actor can “yee-haw” their way through a stereotypical interpretation of Southern white trash. All it takes is a Bible in one hand, a rifle in the other and a backwater drawl that implies your uncle and father are one and the same. But it takes real talent to bring out the artless charm and simple wisdom of a babbling, barefoot and pregnant hick, whose only wish in life is to have her high school sweetheart love her the way he did when they’s wuz just teens.

Meet Amy Adams. Some (but not many) may remember her as the heinous little sister in the inane Debra Messing vehicle The Wedding Date. Forgettable to say the least. But in Phil Morrison’s indie gem Junebug, we see Adams’s full potential realized, and she’s only playing a supporting role.

The bulk of the story revolves around Chicago “outsider” art dealer Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) and her younger husband George (Alessandro Nivola). Desperate to showcase an untapped talent at her gallery, Madeleine drags her husband to a small town buried somewhere in North Carolina hills so that she can court her eccentric painter in person. Which works out perfectly because Georgie boy just happens to be a North Carolina native, and has yet to introduce his blushing bride to the family. There’s Pa (Scott Wilson), who’s not much of a talker. He spends most of the time hiding in the basement, where he can chip away at his wood carvings in peace. This allows Ma (Celia Weston) and younger brother Johnny (played impressively by The O.C. star Benjamin McKenzie) to go at each other’s throats every chance they get. It wasn’t always this way, though. Working in a dead-end factory job while his older brother enjoys big-city success has turned the once sweet Johnny into a spiteful and verbally abusive prick toward his mother and fully preggers wife Ashley (Adams).

Along with Adams’s standout performance, what makes Junebug such an understated beaut of a film is that before you have time to dismiss any one character as repugnant, unenlightened or even honourable, Morrison peels away another layer with a look, a gesture, a racial slur or, in one instance, a sad and lonely finger bang.

Junebug opens Friday, Nov. 4

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