Virginia | Mini Movie Review
Virginia is a dark love story about a young boy named Emmett, played by Harrison Gilbertson, who falls in love with the Sheriff’s daughter in the small town he lives in. Sheriff Tipton, played by Ed Harris, does not want the two together because he has been having an affair with his mother Virginia, played by Jennifer Connelly, for nearly 20 years and he fears Emmett may be his son. Through a school project about tracing family lineage, Emmett finds out that it would be impossible for him to be related to the Sheriff’s daughter Jesse, played by Emma Roberts. Emmett tells Jesse this and they begin to date. Emmett’s mother is psychologically disturbed and very erratic. She believes she is pregnant with the Sheriff’s baby at one point in the film but her doctor says it’s actually some sort of cancer. Sheriff Tipton feels like things are crumbling around him because he’s running for state senate and now that Emmett is seeing his daughter and Virginia seems to be pregnant, he does not know what to do. Virginia then attempts to rob a bank in the middle of the day when she finds out the Sheriff has stopped sending her hush money. Although she wears a gorilla mask and is ID’d by her friend, she does not turn Virginia into the police. Emmett and Jesse decide to run away and get married so they tell Virginia and she ends up helping them. The three of them take a road trip to Atlantic City to get married and Virginia has flashbacks of her time in a mental institution. When they come back, they try to keep their marriage a secret from the Sheriff who is still investigating the bank robbery. On the town’s 4th of July celebration, Emmett realizes that he and Jesse need to leave town for good because of what her father will do when he finds out that they are married. With this, Emmett puts on the gorilla mask he found in his house and attempts to rob his place of employment so he and Jesse will have money to live on when they run away. Things go smoothly until a mixup happens and his friend ends up being shot by the police. Virginia hides Emmett and a standoff ensues at their house. From here, it turns out that the Sheriff’s wife found out about her husband and Virginia because she found a crazy sex toy, which he uses on Virginia occasionally, hidden in their home. She attempts to commit suicide and Jesse stops her. Virginia dresses Emmett in the clothes of a Jehovah’s Witness who came over earlier that day. Emmett sneaks out of the back of the house while Virginia begins to shoot at the police. She lets the young man out of the house after she knows Emmett is safe and, when she comes out, the police shoot her. Emmett takes off down the road and ends up running into Jesse, who is in her dad’s cruiser, and they drive off together.
For an indie movie, this is surprisingly heartfelt and awesomely weird. The characters are well developed and the whole situation between young love and the lives we lead as we get older serve as a pretty unique parallel. Although the movie does not focus too much on the title character and her mental illness, I would say that she has to be the most compelling character in this film. It is subtly hinted that Virginia had suffered some kind of abuse as a child, which in turn caused her serious psychological damage, but the movie never explains what that was. I think centering this film around Virginia and having the young love story serve as more of a subplot would make this film much better. However, this was still an interesting movie that has a lot to say about how confusing love and relationships can be at any stage in life.
Rating:
Must Watch
