I've decided to make the title the main part of my review. Why because this film is written, directed and starring Billy Bob Thornton. It other stars are Robert Duvall, John Hurt, Kevin Bacon Robert Patrick.Frances O'Connor, Ray Stevenson and Katherine LaNasa (who I admit to not knowing). It's a great cast. So why did this film make $15,000 at the box office. Yes that figure is correct.Jayne Mansfield's Car. The title caught my eye of course. Not because it's a great title, just because I had never heard of the film. In fact the title absolutely stinks. But I bought the DVD at the pawn shop for 50 cents because of the great cast.The title could have been The Sons of Jim Caldwell, or The Sons of Naomi Caldwell, but there is a daughter, so maybe THE SIBLINGS OF JIM CALDWELL.Regardless, for many reasons this becomes one of the worst titles of all times , albeit because it's in other ways offensive. I guess set in the deep south there was a desire to make the title as interesting as a Tennessee Williams title. Yes when Vivian Leigh steps off A Streetcar Named Desire to stay with her sister and brother in law, it seems that this has little relationship to the story but it works, it works as in my opinion as the greatest, catchiest title of them all.This film really polarizes people and I've read some of the reviews of those who hate it and all I can say is if you hate it, well you hate it. If a film really stinks I can lose interest after five or ten minutes and most films affect me that way. I almost loved this film. One reviewer mentions that Frances O'Connor goes missing at one point and that occurred to me and my other issue was that Robert Patrick spent so much of the first half of the film in darkness that I didn't recognize him until the second half.So otherwise, I loved it, the slow pace, the darkness to some point, the characters and their development. The acting is first class. Duvall is American Cinema and he and John Hurt are great together. For a film which is set over a week I felt all the loose ends were all tied up. If they wanted a quirky title Old Wrecks and Cadillacs, not Tennessee Williams, but a mighty improvement.

It has absolutely nothing to do with Jayne and the car she was killed in is mentioned only because Robert Duvall's character {Jim Caldwell} is the retired patriarch of a wealthy Alabama family, who spends his spare time listening to police scanners and then going out to visit crash sites. He was a medic in WW1 and must be fascinated with grisly physical injuries. It's never mentioned how the Caldwell family made their money but they have enough that 2 of his sons, Skip {Thornton} & Carroll {Bacon}, live at home and don't have to work. They were each combat veterans in WW2 and now, almost 25 years after the war they seem to spend most of their time drinking beer and smoking dope. They have another brother, Jimbo, who was also a WW2 veteran who didn't see combat but is the responsible brother, who nevertheless is envious that he didn't get to fight as his brothers did. They also have a hot looking sister, Donna {Katherine LaNasa} who had been Miss Alabama years ago and is now married to Neal Baron, a former NFL player who now owns several car dealerships in Atlanta and drinks prodigious amount of beer. The Caldwell family learns that that Jim's estranged wife and their mother Naomi has passed away in England. Her husband of nearly 20 years, Kingsley Bedford {Hurt} and his 2 grown children from a previous marriage, Philip and Camilla and accompanying him to bury Naomi. And that's about it, as far as the plot. The 2 families mingle socially and romantically, as Skip and Camilla discover they both enjoy kinkiness and Donna has a tryst with Philip. Jim reconciles with Kingsley as he takes him to an auto museum to see Jayne's wrecked car. There are some subplots briefly explored. Bacon is about a 50 year old hippie who is leading demonstrations against the Vietnam war to the chagrin of the family. He wants his son to go to college to avoid getting drafted. One of Jim's grandkids is doing acid and spikes his ice tea. The three Caldwell brothers end up bonding together at the end with a joint and beer and jump into one of Skip's muscle cars to ride off into the sunset. Thankfully director and co-writer Thornton didn't have the finish by ending up in a gruesome accident that would bring the father out to visit.It's an uneven movie, but still has some pretty good acting, a few laughs. Not sure how many more movies Robert Duvall may have left in the tank, but this is the type of role he nails. Nice time period piece. The Caldwell's enjoy their Falstaff, a popular beer of the time, gone now for many years.

Thornton & Epperson failed miserably on this one. Same old stereotypical Southern bullshit. Totally unbelievable. Terms like "back in the day" came into America's vernacular in the 90's, not in this period piece. One wonders why "Bucktooth Billy" has to be so skin crawling gross i.e the masturbation scene. The script could have easily been written by a couple high school kids making no one laugh but themselves. Thornton vowed he would never direct again after super-bomb, "All The Pretty Horses". Too bad he broke his promise. Obviously a "one trick pony", ("Sling Blade") which also, by the way, set his home State of Arkansas's image back 50 years. We have no use for him here in his home State. His infamous radio interview on a Canadian radio station,(YouTube), showed us all what a dick he really is. Kevin bacon is great, even in this piece of crap. And for once Robert Duvall didn't talk with his hands

Duvals performance as the introspective, typical unemotional parent of the 50's/60's was masterful. Bacon gave his usual great performance as the hippy son. Thornton's southern ignoramus and the American brash personality clashing with the proper brits was a great storyline. Ron White's performance was great...he played himself. The guy who played the liquid terminater is great too... I loved it. Several story lines within the same family all moving forward in a similar direction. The setting is in the south. It is unclear exactly where. I didn't need to see Billy Bob Thornton naked, but I guess it was important to the storyline.. LOL. "she could take it right up to the gills" is one of billy bobs quotes...