Jayne Mansfield'S Car Movie Review

The movie Jayne Mansfield’s Car hit the screens in 2012. The movie is drama, and Billy Bob Thornton has directed the movie. Also, the movie features director Thornton in it. The movie was premiered at Berlin Film Festival in 2012. The film hit selected theaters on September 13, 2014. The title Jayne Mansfield’s Car is a misnomer. It may mislead the audiences into thinking that the story was about a Hollywood actress killed in a traffic accident in 1967.

But, the movie is about a peculiar clan called the Caldwell. The only car that the plot depicts is the mangled remains of the vehicle after the actress’s death in an accident. The backdrop happens to be in Georgia, USA. Some home scenes were shot in Troup County. Few other portions of the movie were shot in Decatur. Some scenes in the interior were filmed in Griffin, Georgia. The story is woven with fathers and sons in it, and with war and peace in it. 

Those war-torn times had changed the face of America forever. The story with the world war heroes projects the peculiar clan of Caldwell, which gets into a clash with an entirely different clan. The plot goes back in time to 1969 and depicts a small town in Alabama. For a few minutes in the movie, there is the portrayal of the Caldwell clan. Jim is a troubled person but has a lot of money with him. His family life turns out to be a failure. 

The other character Jimbo is much like his father. Jim’s former wife had ditched him and fled away with a British man. In a fine twist to the story, Jim gets a call from the UK conveying her death. One among her desires in the bucket list is to be buried in her native place with her people around her. Her English husband Kingsley and his kids Phillip and Camilla come to Alabama. 

The rest of the movie unfolds with a clash of cultures. The movie has got plenty of cinematic touch in it. The actors who have done the movie have done it wonderfully. Actors Bacon, Hurt, and director Thornton are a common face in a variety of movies. In spite of the low budget and predictability of the movie, every veteran actor in the movie has done it well. Thornton, as director, has gone miles ahead with his directorial touch. The movie is not meant to be a rage, but it would be a powerful hit.