I love Jessica Chastain so I decided to give this movie a try. I had a difficult adolescence so I thought I'd identify with the character. But I should have known-this film was written by men and therefore, the character lacks depth and the edge that a girl who truly went through what this character is portrayed to have dealt with would truly develop. Throughout the movie, older male characters are shown as benefactors rather than victimizers of Jolene, and she is shown as not a confused teenager who out of desperation uses her sexuality and attention from much older adults to survive in otherwise bad circumstances but a horny nymph who sometimes acts robotic but is also seductive and not much of an emotional being. She gets to survive using her sexuality as she's basically raped, and has orgasms, according to this movie. The movie starts with Jolene, at 15, marrying a rather young man named Micky, a sweet and rather awkward man who really does seem to care for her. When the sleazy uncle of the boy takes a predatory interest in Jolene, she finds this appealing and succumbs as a willing participant, which leads to disaster and a series of other adults who find Jolene irresistible and she uses them for her own comfort and survival, which DOES happen in real life, but not without much worse consequences generally. She enjoys art and art is another tool employed to try to make the perversion of this teenager as more legit. This movie portrays the systematic exploitation of a young girl as no big deal and not damaging or hurtful to this young girl- in fact quite the opposite...the writing attempts to show her as "artsy" and steering her own ship instead of a victim who has serious problems. It was only after watching 3/4 of this movie and being disgusted that this continued, that I checked and verified for myself that the writers of this movie were men. Well OF COURSE they were! Who else would write a female lead who has been mistreated by men and had to use her own sexuality with sleazy older men to survive and ENJOYS IT and THRIVES instead of becoming a broken and sad drug addict or worse. What I ended up taking from the movie is that this is a movie for men (and women) who would do things like the men (and women) in the movie to young girls and justify it as if the girl is enjoying and benefitting from this attention and behavior-a way to live. Jolene is shown as mainly a sexual being, a conquest, and a willing participant in her own abuse and exploitation, but not as a person with many feelings outside of sexuality. Even the "religious guy" is a pig and a rapist. But after being anally raped, and showing a tad distress for A MOMENT, she's fine and happy. Her range of emotions were confined within very shallow male's idea of what it's like to be a female, especially a female who has a history like Jolene's. After years of abuse, she has a child, and is IMMEDIATELY fulfilled and believes in God. Then after being beaten enough shows the fortitude to move on, but just as fast as she found God in her child, she gives up on him and fantasizes about going back someday, embraced by her son now as a movie star. That's redemption? What a load of crap. I found it actually rather disgusting but typical of male-created female lead. Don't waste your time, especially if you care about real stories about the female experience.

Were do I begin? With the constant comatose look on the lead actress face? Or the lack of story and character development. Over all this movie was so boring,that even the actors looks bored during all the sex scenes.I mean I get that Jolene is suppose to look bored.Since she's suppose to be emotionally crippled,and get taken advantage off,but the male actors look bored too. Not to mention the cast don't seem to care about delivering any of their lines with some feeling. What ever they got paid to do this movie it's either too much or too little.I like Dermot Mulroney in some of his earlier films,Like Where The Day Takes You,There Goes My Baby ,and Young Guns. But this,this is utterly crap.They even have Theresa Russel,and Denise Richards in it.They both scream washed out actresses

Jessica Chastain, as Jolene, a pale, freckled girl with wild red hair, is only fifteen when the story begins in South Carolina. She's been abandoned by her parents and has grown up as a ward of the state. She's an appealing, impulsive, sexy girl with a casual sense of stoicism.Let's see. She drives her first boyfriend to suicide. Her second beau is a bigamist pretending to be much younger than he is. He goes to prison for statutory rape. Chastain is sent to a correction facility where one of the staff, Frances Fisher, falls in love with her. They get it on together in private and Chastain doesn't mind a bit being loved by a woman. You get used to it.Fisher endangered her own career by smuggling Chastain out of the Home For Wayward Girls and hides her in her own home, warning her not to leave the house for any reason "until this blows over." A quickly bored Chastain leaves anyway and hitch hikes to Arizona, servicing a couple of truck drivers along the way.I'll make the rest of it quickly. Chastain is courted by a failed guitar player and rock singer who now runs a tattoo parlor. He marries her, but he turns out to be already married and is also a drug dealer.She hitches to Las Vegas, where she is spotted pole dancing by Mr. Big, Chazz Palmintieri. She lives with him in a penthouse overlooking Las Vegas until Palmintieri dies a natural death from bullets.Next, ho hum, she hitches to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she is spotted as a waitress and courted by a very odd-mannered man whose family "owns half of Tulsa." The diamond in her engagement ring is the size of the Rock of Gibraltar. She marries him and has his baby, but he's a rude, religious fanatic and beats her. The wicked family kicks her out and takes the baby.Last scene: Now all glamorized and un-hicked by make up and a sense of comme il faut, she wanders the streets of Hollywood, hoping to become a famous movie star, go back to Tulsa, and reclaim her baby.The performances are okay. Nobody torpedoes this movie. And Chastain is quite good in the central role, as is Palmintieri, who finally gets a chance to project genuine sincerity. There are a couple of stereotypical figures but their appearances are brief.It's nicely photographed and directed, and the script gets the job done, but at heart it's the story of a woman abused in every way by men and by the system that's supposed to provide shelter from them. The men are all cads or crooks, and the system works for the wealthy. And the climactic scenes with Chastain's son, when she is declared an unfit mother because of her "checkered past". My God, do we have to go through that again? What is this, Lifetime Movie Network? Why not change the title from "Jolene" to "Please Don't Take My Baby!" Well, the first half of the movie, the part shot in South Carolina, isn't bad at all, a tangled web of American values. And the weaknesses of the men are somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that Jolene herself isn't really a very admirable figure. She starts out dumb and naive, humping rednecks in pick up trucks and whatnot. But every time she meets a new suitor, none of whom she loves, and moves in with him, it's another step up the ladder of wealth and status. "The money doesn't matter," but she keeps getting richer and richer because she's beautiful and willingly shares beds.We've seen much of this before. Other versions are usually shot inexpensively in Canada, starring nobody you ever heard of, but they're all supported by the same familiar, sagging spine. And at the end, the protagonist walks bravely alone, smiling, optimistic. She still has her dreams.It's by no means an offensive movie. It's a little reminiscent of "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore", the far superior "Wanda," and a number of other stories of women on their own. But it is repetitious, and finally boring, in its formulaic way.

Jessica Chastain, as Jolene, blows me away in this heartfelt adventure-drama. Known for more recent roles in The Help (2011) and The Tree of Life (2011) the relatively new actress is making big waves in Hollywood. Jolene is a breakout film for her, in which she captures the leading role by a longshot(and also SIFF Best Female Actress), with supporting actors having no more than about ten minutes on screen each. In the film, Chastain plays a redheaded vixen(she's one in real life too) orphan. She marries at an early age and struggles with household tasks as a wife, but finds her niche in her artwork. There's something about her that is irresistible and her newly-wed's father begins an affair with her. One thing leads to another and Jolene is sent to a psychiatric ward with no known family to vouch for her or take care of her. She uses her artistic abilities to make an income painting portraits of her inmates. A lesbian love affair with one of the guards eventually breaks her free. Jolene sets off west in search of a new life. She continues to find comfort in art becoming a tattooer's apprentice in Phoenix followed by an exotic dancer in Las Vegas. Through the course of multiple lovers and many different career paths, Jolene takes us on a thrilling journey across the United States from the perspective of a very fetching young female orphan.Bottom line: If you don't think Jessica Chastain is attractive, don't watch Jolene.