Jolene (2008)

Critic Reviews

• Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

  More epic than it needs to be and less profound than it should be, "Jolene" remains a watchable excursion into human frailty and foibles.

• Lou Lumenick, New York Post

  So bad it's almost (but not quite) good, Dan Ireland's Jolene is an unusually elaborate and excruciatingly long vanity production...

• Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

  Ms. Chastain digs deep. Surrendering to her character's smoky voice-over and disastrous judgment, the actress finds pockets of soul in a role that's part Jessica Rabbit, part Marilyn Monroe.

• Rex Reed, New York Observer

  The movie has been through as many hurdles getting here as dear, sweet Jolene, but sometimes the most engaging movies are the ones worth waiting for.

• Nick Schager, Village Voice

  Throughout, Chastain delivers a full-bodied debut performance, but she's ultimately stuck taking her wandering-soul protagonist far more seriously than it -- or the film -- deserves.

• Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter

  This picaresque tale dawdles a bit, but Chastain keeps us rooting for Jolene's survival.

• Brian Orndorf, BrianOrndorf.com

  Cruelly, the display of sorrow never takes command, with most of the film an unsatisfactory soap opera that never seizes an illuminating essence.

• Marcy Dermansky, About.com

  Chastain has long red hair, wide eyes, and an even wider smile. She is Jolene, of course, and she is appealing.

• Tom Keogh, Seattle Times

  Chastain proves near-heroic embodying Jolene's innate strength and incremental wisdom. Yet she also makes us understand how the heroine's wobbly resistance to manipulative characters is overwhelmed time and again.

• Maria Garcia, Film Journal International

  Based on an E.L. Doctorow short story, Jolene is an apt example of how stories about women who are in abusive relationships can be turned into sexual exploitation.

• Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

  Vapid, convoluted, tedious and too episodic despite Jessica Chastain's charismatic performance as the seductive, wounded, insecure and lonely Jolene.

• Glenn Heath Jr., Slant Magazine

  Jolene's main themes, including the manipulation of youth, the fragility of love, and the suppression of individuality, try to carry the wonky dialogue into complex territory.

• Michelle Orange, Movieline

  Chastain, an incandescent redhead with a heart-shaped face and round, shining eyes, does more justice to the part than it deserves.

• Armond White, New York Press

  Downplaying Doctorow's condescending literary and class ironies, Ireland creates something more like a queer-inflected Candide.

• Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

  A road movie that charts the adventures of an orphan teenager as she experiments with sexuality, marriage, and adultery.

• Andrew Schenker, Time Out New York

  One minute a guy's making Jolene patently false promises, the next she's getting sodomized on her wedding night.

• Louis Proyect, rec.arts.movies.reviews

  A picaresque tale of a young woman's sad passage through abuse marriages that retains the sardonic wit of the original story by E.L. Doctorow.

• Mike Goodridge, Screen International

  While its lumpy story drags long before its running time is up, the film serves as the perfect showcase for new star Jessica Chastain, a dazzling redhead whose talent and radiance keeps its many parts watchable.

Read all 18 critic reviews