Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) runs a high-brow art gallery in Chicago and has to take a trip to North Carolina to meet with an artist she wants to sign. She uses this opportunity to also meet her husband’s family, who is originally from there.
She is introduced into the small world of rural North Carolina, personified in Ashley (Amy Adams), the wife of her husband’s brother. Ashley is a wide-eyed but good-hearted person who has never left her town and who is in a bad relationship but pregnant with her first child.
Ashley is the true main character of this movie (even if all Adams accolades were for ‘best supporting’ awards). Her joyfulness, her pregnancy, and her interactions with Madeliene are studied closely in this subtle but touching family drama.
"Helmer Morrison and scripter Angus MacLachlan merely hint at long-festering estrangement that provides an ominously percolating undercurrent throughout scenes in the modest but spacious family home."
— Joe Leydon
On the way to meet with an independent artist in the South, newlywed art dealer Madeleine is convinced by her husband, George, that they should stop to meet his family in North Carolina. Madeleine's affluent lifestyle clashes with the family, but she befriends George's wide-eyed and pregnant sister-in-law, Ashley, who is nearing her due date. Through the family, Madeleine gains greater insight into George's character.
Oscars
1 nomination
Cannes
1 nomination
SAG Awards
1 nomination
Spirit Awards
1 win, 2 nominations
Sundance
1 win
Nat. Board of Review
1 nomination
NYFCC
1 nomination
LAFCA
1 nomination
