Movie Review: Mudbound

Mudbound **** / *****

Directed by: Dee Rees.

Written by: Virgil Williams and Dee Rees based on the novel by Hillary Jordan.

Starring: Carey Mulligan (Laura McAllan), Garrett Hedlund (Jamie McAllan), Jason Clarke (Henry McAllan), Jonathan Banks (Pappy McAllan), Jason Mitchell (Ronsel Jackson), Mary J. Blige (Florence Jackson), Rob Morgan (Hap Jackson), Kerry Cahill (Rose Tricklebank), Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Weeks), Lucy Faust (Vera Atwood), Henry Frost (Teddy), Dylan Arnold (Carl Atwood).

 

There have been a lot of films about racism in America over the years, but few and far between are the ones that treat it as Dee Rees Mudbound does. Set during and just after WWII, in the rural South, the film tells the story of two different families, sharing the same land. The land is owned by Henry McAllan (Jason Clarke), who has moved his wife Laura (Carey Mulligan), their daughters, and his overtly racist father, Pappy (Jonathan Banks) to this muddy patch of land, thinking he would become a big shot land owner, only to discover the opposite is true. He thinks of himself as something of a big shot – but knows, deep down, he isn’t – and if he ever thinks otherwise, Pappy is there to inform him otherwise. The other family is the Jackson’s – led by patriarch Hap (Rob Morgan), and his wife Florence (Mary J. Blige). They’ve been on this land for years – sharecropping – and Hap has pride in the land, and his job – and also his large family. Hap knows the “rules” for being a black man in the South – and while he doesn’t like them – he knows how to get along without getting in too much trouble.

 

Both families are affected by WWII – as they both send a man over to the war. For the McAllans, it is Henry’s brother Jamie (Garrett Hedlund) – who when we meet him before the war, is dashing and handsome and charming – the opposite of his quieter brother. For the Jacksons, it is their son Ronsel (Jason Mitchell), who joins and fights his war in a tank in Germany – even falls in love with a German girl. They both return from the war changed men – to a place that has not changed. Ronsel is barely back, before Pappy and Henry remind him of his “place” at the local general store – the irony is not lost on us – or Ronsel – that an enemy country treated him with more respect than he gets at home. Jamie struggles with PTSD, which he treats with alcohol. Jamie and Ronsel eventually bond with each other over their war experiences (in this small town, it’s almost like no one else went to the war) – but even in their more peaceful meetups, there is an air of danger hanging over them. In this time and place, a white man and a black man cannot be friends.

 

If Henry and Hap are one matched pair – one benefitting from the racial system, one quietly accepting it, and Ronsel and Jamie are another matched pair – returning from war to a world that hasn’t changed, even if they have, then Laura and Florence are a third matched pair. Their relationship begins when Laura’s kids come down with whooping cough, and Henry cannot get into town for the doctor – so he brings back Florence – who is a midwife – to help. Florence knows what to do to help the kids, and soon she will be hired to help out the McAllans more and more. While both Laura and Florence outwardly respect their husbands, and accept their roles as their wives, they both subtly undermine them as well. They relate to each other as mothers and wives – and are more than willing to go against their husbands if they feel it is the right thing to do.

 

The structure of Mudbound is mainly episodic – and to be honest, at times, the transition between episodes is choppy at best. This is especially true in the scenes when Jamie and Ronsel are at war, and we go from quiet, rural South, right into the middle of a war. The transition can be jarring – and not always in a good way. But as it moves it, the film finds it rhythm better and better. The film – adapted from a novel by Hillary Jordan, who used shifting narrators – at times provides each of the major characters a chance for voiceovers, which lets us into their point-of-view of what is happening. This helps, because Mudbound is mostly a film of small moments that slowly gather a cumulative power. The technical aspects of the film are expertly handled – the period details of the costume and production design, Rachel Morrison’s great cinematography.

 

The ending of the film is inevitable, and has been telegraphed before it arrives. My only complaint about it really, is that I wish Pappy was treated as a complex character as everyone else. Jonathan Banks is a great actor – see him on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul – but Pappy is an old school, one note racist, and I wish he was something more. Jason Clarke’s Henry is a racist too – but he’s given some sort of complexity – and he has a way of delivering his dialogue to Hap with a smile that makes it sound like he’s saying it with contempt anyway. With Pappy, it’s just out and out hate.

 

The film ends on a up note, and even though it’s a different ending than the book (and will apparently make a sequel, that novelist Jordan is working on, harder to do as a direct sequel to this) – I think it is the right choice for the film. With all the heaviness, and brutality, we see before this – it’s good to see an ending that isn’t completely devoid of hope – one that doesn’t suggest everything is completely broken. Perhaps that ending is realistic – but it’s the one we want anyway.