Very Cool!!!

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This movie is ok most of the way through, a little scattered storyline, not much versatility, and they took every opportunity to get her naked. Towards the end it really goes off the rails and jumps the shark at the sodomy scene. With all of that I would still recommend this movie simply on Jessica Chastain's performance. She was amazing in her debut and it shows that, with her huge success now, she has been an outstanding actress from her first movie. This movie is probably a 4 without her and I can't wait to see her in more and more movies in the future.

JOLENE is an adaptation of one of EL Doctorow's short stories from his collection 'Sweet Land Stories'. That story was one of the few forgettable ones in that collection and makes one wonder why it was singled out for a screenplay by Dennis Yares. Doctorow is one of America's most important writers (Welcome to Hard Times, The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, Loon Lake, The Water Works, The March, City of God, etc) and this is surely not one of his finest moments. Made in 2008, it did give Jessica Chastain an opportunity for exposure (as in "total'!) so perhaps that is why it is making the rounds again - before Oscars....Jolene is a 15 year old girl, at story's beginning, who knows nothing about her parents and who marries a geek boy (Zeb Newman) whose own parents are mysteriously dead and lives with relatives who are odd - the aunt (Theresa Russell) is angry with the world and uncle (Dermot Mulroney) is a pedophile: Jolene ruins her first relationship by having an affair at age 16 with the uncle , her 'husband' commits suicide, and she ends up a juvenile delinquent in a 'home' for wayward girls. There she is courted by staff member Cindy (Frances Farmer) who helps her new young lover escape. Jolene runs away to hit the road hitchhiking (selling favors along the way), and ends up in a desert drive-in where she meets and marries a tattoo artists Coco (Rupert Friend) who is a drug dealer on the side and Jolene steps out of another bad relationship. Making her way across the country she stops in to work as a stripper and is noticed by a rich man (Chaz Palminteri) from Las Vegas who shows Jolene wealth and love but is murdered by a rival gang from New York. Once again she hits the road to end up in Tulsa, OK where she is courted by a sicko right wing evangelistic wealthy boy (Michael Vartan) who marries her despite his wealthy parents concerns, gets her pregnant, then throws Jolene's past in her face, claiming their newborn child as his own - Jolene being a used and unfit mother. In desperation Jolene moves to Hollywood where she follows her one talent - art - and dreams of becoming a movie star.Dan Ireland directs this bit of treacle and an outstanding cast makes the best of the script they're given. Chastain shows evidence of the superb acting skills that now yearly are becoming more apparent. But as a movie, JOLENE Is a contrived little mess - and it makes us wonder how the powerful EL Doctorow could be so diluted. Grady Harp

This was one of those movies where it doesn't really matter if the story sucks or if the film itself was poorly made. I could care less about any of that stuff because watching Jessica Chastain on screen is just delightful in its own way.The story was alright, although I'm not sure there was an actual story here. All I gathered from the so called plot was that this woman (Jolene) didn't know what to do with herself and just kinda wandered & winged it through life on a daily basis.This movie should have been the female version of "The Truman Show" where the audience can just follow around a clueless human being for no particular reason. This is a wannabe reality show disguised as a feature film and the only thing missing is SNOOKI and that's all there is too it....

This movie is very dark but it shows what life can be like for some children growing up in foster care. It is easy to forget that Jolene is actually a child when she gets married the first time. Jolene is a child without a childhood and she uses sex to get what she wants/needs. Jolene does not seem to make life happen, she just goes through life letting things happen to her. It seems that she just wants to be loved and cared for. However, she does not know how to do that the right way. There were a lot of sex and nude scenes. I am not sure that all of it was necessary. Many scenes are difficult to watch if you are a woman and it is easy to feel sad for the character Jolene. I had hoped that Jolene would have a happy ending. However, it is meant to be realistic and not wrapped in a sweet little package. It was okay to watch once but I would not watch it again.