Briar Patch (2003)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

Zev Berman

Writer:

Deborah Pryor (writer)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Love. Marriage. Murder. Sometimes they're all...Plain Dirty

Plot:

A woman becomes immersed in a brutal love triangle when an unwelcomed admirer kills her abusive husband even though she's already having an affair.

Plot Keywords:

Lack Of Education

Awards:

2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Dominique Swain	...	Inez
Henry Thomas	...	Edgar MacBeth
Arie Verveen	...	Flowers
James Urbaniak	...	Druden Hunt
Karen Allen	...	Butcher Lee
Debra Monk	...	Officer Avon
Blake Lindsley	...	Raeburn
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sam Froelich	...	Warehouse Foreman
Judy Simpson	...	Mrs. Hunt

Also Known As:

Plain Dirty (USA) (DVD title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language, violence and some drug content.

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:R

Filming Locations:

High Point, North Carolina, USA

Company:

Down Home Entertainment

Quotes:

Flowers: Please don't do that, Brer Fox.
Edgar MacBeth: It ain't no fun to get your husband angry, if you ain't around to see it.

Be careful what you wish for!

Young, pretty and dirt poor, Inez Macbeth lives in a squalid shack in the boonies, suffering the abuse of her criminal husband Edgar and the unwanted attentions of Edgar's repulsive, slow-witted partner Flowers, who slavers over her like a starved dog contemplating a steak bone. Inez runs around barefoot, dirty and frequently bloody from the beatings she receives from Edgar, who even chains her up. She lives only for her trips to town, where she visits a "licensed, semi-professional spiritual adviser" and her kindly and wealthy lover Drew, who plans to take her away with him.

After one particularly brutal beating by Edgar, Inez schemes to have willing dupe Flowers murder her husband and then take the blame for it himself, so she can run off with Drew. In the fallout from Edgar's murder Inez is freed of her husband, all right and even the police are happy to be rid of this criminal low-life, but Flowers turns out to be far more clever than expected, for he frames innocent, unfortunate Drew, leaving Inez with no where to go and no one to turn to, as Flowers finally takes her for himself.

This is a strong film about entrapment, desire and the wages of sin, with a good script and fine acting. Dominique Swain gives an affecting performance, managing to be sexy and fetching even under all that blood and dirt. Edgar and Flowers seem like real people - multi-dimensional and not the kind of one-sided, cardboard-cutout psychos found so often in movies. This picture is so gritty and realistic it may not suit all tastes but I highly recommend it - you may find it as powerful as I did.