“Hillbilly Elegy” Film Review

Hammered with a ton of negative reviews, the Oscar hopeful “Hillbilly Elegy” is not as bad as some have made it out to be. Featuring a fantastic performance from Glenn Close and enough dramatic moments to keep this film afloat, I still think it’s worth a view. The film also stars Amy Adams, Gabriel Basso, Haley Bennett and Freida Pinto, with direction from two-time Oscar winner Ron Howard (“A Beautiful Mind” “Cinderella Man” “Apollo 13”) and a screenplay by Oscar nominee Vanessa Taylor (“The Shape of Water” “Divergent”). With a cast and team like this, you already know the stakes are high.

Based on the memoir by J.D. Vance, “Hillbilly Elegy” is a character study about three generations of family history. J.D. (Basso) grew up in a very dysfunctional family in an Ohio small town. As he grows up, he attends Yale and works three jobs to keep up with tuition. He is dating a young Indian woman, Usha (Pinto), and is the middle of preparing for summer internship interviews.

As if he wasn’t stressed enough already, J.D. gets a call from his sister Lindsay (Bennett). She notifies him that their mom, Bev(Adams), has overdosed on heroin and is now in the hospital. Being overwhelmed with raising three kids, Lindsay asks J.D. to come home in the middle of his interview week. Hesitant at first, J.D. decides it’s best for him to go back home to get his mother help.

As J.D. makes the trip back and eventually arrives, he reflects back on his turbulent childhood. His mom was abusive, erratic and always addicted to some sort of drug. She could never keep a job as a nurse, jumped from men to men, and even became abusive towards J.D.

He did, however, have a woman to look up to: his grandma or “mamaw” (Close). She is a feisty, tell it like it is, but full of heart woman who wants what is best for J.D.: a bright future. We start to learn more about her life as a mother to Bev, and how Papaw Vance (Bev’s father/Mamaw’s husband) was abusive and drunk. Mamaw tried all that she could to protect Bev, but it left Bev scarred and depressed (hence the drugs).

As we continue the journey with J.D. and watch him struggle to get his mother help, he has to decide if he should continue to help his mom or follow his passions, like his mamaw would wanted him to (mamaw dies from pneumonia during the middle of the film). I won’t give away the ending so watch the film at least once to see how J.D. and his family turn out.

Looking at the performances, Glenn Close is the real scene-stealer in this film. She’s committed and on point every step of the way. Some may say she borders a caricature, but I honestly thought she did a fabulous job. She still may see an Oscar nomination, too.

Amy Adams is solid, but I honestly found her performance to be a bit one-note. She’s basically in a frantic, out-of-control mess the entire film. Yes, she is good, but I was not completely wowed. The same goes for Basso. He is good, but not great. He was a little restrained for me, and I didn’t quite get the emotion from him.

Ron Howard does a solid job with his directing, but the screenplay from Vanessa Taylor falls flat from time to time. There’s moments of greatness, but also some bland dialogue. I was expecting more from Howard and Taylor, honestly, giving their impressive film past.

Like I said before, “Hillbilly Elegy” is not a bad film — it’s just not the fantastic film that I wanted it to be. Netflix may still receive some award attention from Glenn Close (and some say Adams, too, but I think there are better performances out there that could push her down the list). I probably won’t watch it again, but I am glad I watched it once to see what I thought for myself. Rated R.

Grade = 3/5.