SALON

Wednesday, Dec 30, 2009 6:45 PM UTC

Films of the decade: “The Ballad of Jack and Rose”

Rebecca Miller's edgy, underappreciated father-daughter comedy resonates with the rhythms of real life

By

Topics: Films of the Decade, Film Salon, Best of the Decade, Movies,

Films of the decade: A still from "The Ballad of Jack and Rose"

Several of the decade’s most beguiling cinematic risk takers flew well under the radar. Joanna Hogg’s “Unrelated,” warmly received in its native Britain, has yet to cross the Atlantic, although the writer-director’s perceptive gaze at a “mature” woman’s summertime fancy toward a young hedonist has “art-house hit” stamped all over its passport. Other expectation-defying films were openly jeered (Spike Lee’s”“She Hate Me,” Woody Allen’s “Anything Else“) or were held captive by archaic copyright laws (Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings the Blues“).

But of all the masterworks denied their rightful place in the noonday sun of mainstream recognition, the one dearest to me is Rebecca Miller‘s “Ballad of Jack and Rose.” By turns a frenetic comedy, a sun-dappled meditation on nature worship, and a poignant study of how hippie idealism sputters in a materialist world, “Ballad,” above all, centers on the intimacies that develop in father-daughter relations given the absence of a mother figure. Miller handles the incest theme with great delicacy, hiding neither behind manufactured sentiment nor falsely ironic hipster posturing.

Daniel Day-Lewis and the radiant Camilla Belle, in the title roles, are so at ease with each other that, of course, we can see how Rose, at age 16, would still want her daddy to tell her bedtime stories. And yet, as they live out their lives as the last two inhabitants of a once-thriving commune on Canada’s Prince Edward Island, the attraction between them — even if it isn’t made sexual — seems perfectly natural and in keeping with the pull of the tides, with the rising and setting of the sun each day.

Although “There Will Be Blood” apologists might demur, the animus between Day-Lewis and Paul Dano (as a slacker punk who takes Rose’s virginity) registers much stronger in Miller’s film. The men have characters, not caricatures, to play this time around, and Day-Lewis’ heated emotion — the emotion of a father wanting to safeguard his only child — has the ring of real life to it.

“The Ballad of Jack and Rose” was released early in 2005, the year that would later bring “Brokeback Mountain” and Terrence Malick’s “New World.” These three films form a kind of troika of impossible loves. Miller’s work may not have received similar acclaim, yet, to borrow a phrase from James Dickey, her step on these heights is sure, and the view is exhilarating.

Film Salon has invited a group of special guests to write about their favorite film(s) of the 2000s. To read the entire series, go here.

More N.P. Thompson.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 5 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

Films of the Decade is a series running in Film Salon, our new collaborative blog.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations