BLACK SNAKE MOAN

Year: 2006
USA: Paramount Classics
UK: Paramount Pictures UK
Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Christina Ricci, Justin Timberlake, S Epatha Merkerson, R L John Cothran, David Banner, Michael Raymond-James, Adriane Lenox, Kim Richards, Neimus K Williams, Leonard L Thomas, Ruby Wilson, Claude Phillips, Amy Lavere, Clare Grant, Jeff Pope, Skip Pitts, Willie Hall, John Malloy, T C Sharpe, John Still, Jared Hopkins, Tosh Newman, Cody Block, Benjamin Rednour, Carnell Pepper, David Chapman, Jolynne Palmer, Raymond Neal, John Pickle, Kim Justis, Cedric Burnside, Kenny Brown
Director: Craig Brewer
Country: USA
USA & UK: 116 mins
USA Rated: R for strong sexual content, language, some violence and drug use
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and sex references
USA Release Date: 2 March 2007 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 18 May 2007 (Limited Release)
UK Distributor

Synopsis

There was a time when Lazarus (Samuel L Jackson) played the blues; a time he got Bojo's Juke Joint shakin' back in the day. Now he lives them. Bitter and broken from a cheating wife and a shattered marriage, Lazarus' soul is lost in spent dreams and betrayal's contempt...Until Rae (Christina Ricci).

Half naked and beaten unconscious, Rae is left for dead on the side of the road when Lazarus discovers her. The God-fearing, middle-aged black man quickly learns that the young white woman he's nursing back to health is none other than the town tramp from the small Tennessee town where they live. Worse, she has a peculiar anxiety disorder. He realizes when the fever hits, Rae's affliction has more to do with love lost than any found. Abused as a child and abandoned by her mother, Rae is used by just about every man in the phone book. She tethers her only hope to Ronnie (Justin Timberlake), but escape to a better life is short-lived when Ronnie ships off for boot camp. Desperation kicks in, as a drug-induced Rae reverts to surviving the only way she knows how, by giving any man what he wants to get what she needs...Until Lazarus.

Refusing to know her in the biblical sense, Lazarus decides to cure Rae of her wicked ways - and vent some unresolved male vengeance of his own. He chains her to his radiator, justifying his unorthodox methods with quoted scripture. Preacher R L (John Cothran) intervenes, but it is Lazarus and Rae who redeem themselves. Unleashing Rae emotionally, Lazarus unchains his heart, finding love again in Angela (S Epatha Merkerson). By saving Rae, he frees himself.

The film is the third feature by writer-director Craig Brewer, his first film HUSTLE & FLOW won an Academy Award® for Best Song and the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award. A Paramount Vantage production, BLACK SNAKE MOAN is produced by John Singleton and Stephanie Allain, who also produced HUSTLE & FLOW. Paramount Vantage is a specialty division of Paramount Pictures.

BLACK SNAKE MOAN stars Samuel L Jackson, Christina Ricci, Justin Timberlake, S Epatha Merkerson, John Cothran and Michael Raymond-James.