Kimberly Williamson

Powerful, dark, thought provoking. Very heavy theme for such a young man. It's definitely an artsy film so you have to pay more attention to the characters than the plot. Especially Momma. I think the look on her face when the preacher offered his solution provided pretty good insight into her take on his counsel - and to what likely happened at the end. At one point she asks her son, somewhat rhetorically, "Do you think I'm simple?" While he never admitted it, I think she concluded that obviously he (and the preacher) thought exactly that. So, rather than rationalizing with them, she simply took matters into her own hands. It was subtle but you get it when you think on it. That's one of the things that makes it so powerful. It's not spelled out for you but if you pay attention to Momma, she's just taking it all in. Why else was she sitting on the porch with the rifle on her lap in the middle of the movie? It was before the tragic incident was revealed but really, it's bigger than just the incident. It's the culture that condones the incident. Momma was the strong one, the smart one and unfortunately the only one with a conscience. I think she was struggling more with how to break the cycle of evil than either her faith or the love of her son. Obviously, the preacher couldn't break the cycle because he was part of the problem. And the son was bad fruit perpetuating another generation of abusive, drunken, lazy and misogynistic men. In the end I think she decided the only way to break the cycle was to take matters into her own hands Old Testament style. She purged the evil from the earth in two shots. And therein lies the glimmer of hope.