First, a disclaimer. For a long time, Ashley Judd was an actress I enjoyed very much enjoyed. I always thought it would be great to see Judd, Jodie Foster, and Julia Stiles in some sort of thinking woman's drama; I like that the three actresses seem bright and thoughtful on screen as well as in their real lives. (Laura Linney and Hope Davis would star in the indie version.) Over time, however, Kiss the Twisted Girls dealing with High Crimes and Double Jeopardy became tiresome. I liked Come Early Morning well enough: The alcohol and sex thing became annoying - why must every poor or working-class Southern woman hit a bar? Is it the culture? - but it was a nice change of pace to see a woman who took pleasure and pride in her work. Therefore, because Judd had built up some goodwill in my acting life again, I was willing to give Bug a chance, even though it wasn't my kind of movie. Oh, boy.
Ashley Judd is emoting … and acting … and yelling about critters and conspiracies in her latest thriller, Bug. While it’s nice to see her shift from tough-woman-in-peril roles, channeling Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest likely wasn’t what anyone had in mind.
William Friedkin has strayed far from the true scares of The Exorcist with this feature, an adaptation of a Tracy Letts play. Unfortunately, we get only teases here of the claustrophobic tension in Letts’ production. Instead of Linda Blair’s head spinning, Bug has … well, with the slurred raving by Judd and co-star Michael Shannon, it’s difficult to say what, exactly, we have. We hear lamenting about a lost son, rantings about government plots, and squawking about insects, yet it all sounds more like a B movie.
Bug tries to be an ambiguous, psychological tale about two strained souls clinging together but instead comes across as an unoriginal hack job. Judd’s Agnes is a pile of clichés: lonely; hard-drinking; living in a cheap motel; receiving hang-ups that are probably from her abusive ex, who just got out of jail. Agnes meets Ray (Shannon), an eccentric veteran with issues of his own. Naturally, they get vulnerable in short order, Agnes’ ex (Harry Connick Jr.) returns to bother her, and that motel space becomes even tinier. Meanwhile, bugs seem to be invading and multiplying … or is it only in Ray’s and Agnes’ increasingly paranoid minds?
The ludicrous ending involves shouting, gasoline, and flames - a metaphor for Judd’s career?
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