Review: Mudbound

Netflix well and truly enters this year's Oscar race with a powerful film adaptation of Hillary Jordan's critically acclaimed debut novel Mudbound. A searing snapshot of race relations spanning the period between America's entry into WWII and the subsequent postwar era, the narratively dense epic focuses on the complex web of relationships that twine two families - one white, the other black - in tentative hope and terrible tragedy.

"I dreamed in brown," shares Laura (Carey Mulligan) at the start of the film. Like most of the characters in the story, Laura has become bound to the land, though not necessarily of her own accord. A 31-year-old virgin with a teaching certificate living with her parents in Memphis, she blossoms under the attention of family friend Henry McAllan (Jason Clarke); more than love, it is gratitude which motivates her acceptance of his marriage proposal. She is content, even happy at times, at her new role as wife to Henry and, soon thereafter, mother to their two children.

Unbeknownst to Laura, Henry has bought a farm in Mississippi and decides to move his whole family there, including his noxiously racist father Pappy (Jonathan Banks). When they arrive, however, it turns out that the seller has swindled Henry out of living in the main house and so the family has to move into the run-down home on the farm, where electricity and running water are not to be taken for granted. Living not too far from them are the Jacksons, headed up by patriarch Hap (Rob Morgan), a preacher and tenant farmer working the same land where his ancestors once toiled. He's wary of the McAllans instinctive treatment of his family as round-the-clock help but mindful of the status quo - no use fighting when the whites always win - though he bristles when his wife Florence (an affecting and dignified Mary J. Blige) agrees to work as a housekeeper at Laura's request. "You don't belong to them," Hap tells his wife, but the pragmatic Florence reasons that the extra money will help them with their dream of owning their own land.

As these two families reflect upon their hopes and hardships, both are also affected by greater circumstances. War has been declared and both families have one of their own on the front lines. Their individual experiences in the war and how those experiences shape the surprising friendship that develops between them once they return home forms the heart and soul of the film. In contrast to the resolute Henry, his younger brother Jamie (Garrett Hedlund) is dashing and carefree though war has dampened his easygoing ways to the point where he needs alcohol to dull the trauma. Neither he nor Ronsel (Jason Mitchell), the Jackson's eldest son, have much patience for the bigotry that pervades their small town though they are inevitably powerless at the tragic consequences borne from their bond.

Mudbound is replete with stunningly composed, poetic yet unsentimental images. There's a hint of Dutch landscape paintings and more than a passing resemblance to the photography of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange. Cinematographer Rachel Morrison crafts impressive compositions, but director Dee Rees maintains priority on characterisation. As the multiple voiceovers indicate, the main sextet are equalised - all are affected one way or another with the weight of history and how legacy can be both a blessing and a curse. Foreboding is ever present - the ground on which they hang their fortunes is a fickle master, doling out feast and famine in inequal measure; Laura notes how violence is part and parcel of country life; the whooping cough that assails one of Laura's daughters; the miscarriage Laura has which brings her and Florence closer - and how that sense of dread crystallises in a deeply harrowing scene involving Ronsel, Jamie and the Ku Klux Klan.

The cast are superlative but all credit is due to Rees, who explores how the currency of white privilege often bears the strangest fruit and how, even in relative peace and understanding, violence is always lurking in the shadows waiting to strike.

Mudbound

Directed by: Dee Rees

Written by: Dee Rees, Virgil Williams; based on the novel by Hillary Jordan

Starring: Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jonathan Banks, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige, Rob Morgan