Virginia (2012)

5% of critics liked it
(21 reviews)
63% of users liked it
(1,974 ratings)

A single mother struggles to raise her son Emmett while dreaming of escaping her small Southern boardwalk town. Her long time affair with the very married, Mormon Sheriff Richard Tipton is thrown into question when he decides to run for public office. Things are further complicated when Emmett… More A single mother struggles to raise her son Emmett while dreaming of escaping her small Southern boardwalk town. Her long time affair with the very married, Mormon Sheriff Richard Tipton is thrown into question when he decides to run for public office. Things are further complicated when Emmett begins a romantic relationship with Tipton's daughter. Virginia and the town-populated by Amy Madigan, Toby Jones, Yeardley Smith-are full of secrets and everyone knows Virginia can only keep things together for so long. Virginia is a funny, touching drama that looks at the American Dream and what it takes to keep it together. -- (C) Official Site

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 56 min.
Directed By: Dustin Lance Black
Written By: Dustin Lance Black
Genres: Drama, Comedy

In Theaters: May 18, 2012 Limited
Studio: Entertainment One

Critic Reviews

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
It's all rather wacky and hard to follow or fathom, although maybe that's attributable to Virginia's schizophrenia veering off on its delusional phase.
Lou Lumenick, New York Post
A bravely demented semi-autobiographical drama that never lives up to the potential of its high-powered cast.
Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times
Set among the hangdog hicks and arcade attractions of a fictional Southern beach town, the loosely autobiographical movie aims for roller-coaster passion but only flatlines.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
There are so many moving parts spinning in so many directions that this movie's purpose is inscrutable and the noise of its grinding parts distracting.
Scott Tobias, NPR
The result here is the type of calamity that should be more compelling than it is.
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
The movie as a whole falls victim to a dewy kind of Tennessee Williams-itis...
Fred Topel, Crave Online
Sensitive about characters exploring this culture and the conversations they must have trying to figure out relationships. It's not ridiculing or condescending at all.
Sam Adams, AV Club
Black seems to be aiming for some sort of loopy fantasia, a tragic fable about struggling with difference in the small-town South, but he's got more half-finished ideas than he can handle.
Chris Bumbray, JoBlo's Movie Emporium
A trainwreck.
Billy Tatum, Paste Magazine
Shotguns so many elements onto the screen that it's difficult to know which to follow, cheer for or hate.
Liz Braun, Jam! Movies
The film concerns a woman with psychological problems, her married lover and her 16-year-old son, but the tale wobbles between humour and drama in a disconcerting fashion.
Alison Willmore, Movieline
Virginia is so scattershot it feels like it's a vehicle created to loosely hold a group of ideas rather than function as anything coherent.
Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze
Religious zealots and nonbelievers alike run amok, as discussions abound about post-mortem polygamy and romance materializing in outer space in the afterlife This, as erotic police handcuffs and Mitt Romney intimations kick in. Sex, Lies and Mormons.
Eric Hynes, Time Out New York
Black's overactive melodrama is more than a representation of schizophrenia; it's the embodiment of it.
David Noh, Film Journal International
Give a young auteur some indie pull and look what happens: Strictly recommended to anyone who needs to see a schizophrenic single mother robbing a bank in a gorilla mask and housedress.
Jesse Cataldo, Slant Magazine
Unfortunately, there's little sympathy granted to these people, and the revelation of their hidden vices comes across like an increasingly mean series of punchlines.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...aggressively meaningless...