Prattling about movies and accents.

I saw the movie “Junebug” today. I really enjoyed it but I still have a couple things that are pestering me. #1: Two of the main characters, Alessandro Nivola and Embeth Davidtz play a passionate young married couple. My problem is that the same two played Henry and Mary Crawford, brother and sister, in the film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. As I watch each of the Jane Austen movies several times a year, it felt a little incestuous.

#2: The bigger issue I had with the movie was the accents. Davidtz plays a character with a British accent, so she sounds fine to me . Nivola, actually from Boston, plays a Carolinian; I swear a British accent frequently slips into his bad southern accent. (Maybe he was too convincing in “Mansfield Park.”) The only character whose accent sounded authentic to me was Ashley, played by Amy Adams. She was wonderful.

To be fair, I usually have issues with all Hollywood southern accents. Since this was actually filmed near Winston-Salem, however, I was hoping they might actually listen to a couple of locals while they were there and speak accordingly. Luckily, the only stereotypes are in the accents; the characters are not as dumb as they sound. It was a poignant, quiet, character-driven movie.

I have a Midwestern (referred to here as “Yankee”) accent and a good ear. One can hear the difference between Texas and Georgia; Charleston, West Virginia vs. Charleston, South Carolina (hard “R” vs. no “R”); Lexington Kentucky vs. Lexington, North Carolina; Greenbo Alabama…I digress. I’m sure people all over the world hear subtleties in familiar accents that are missed by the masses. Go see the movie.