Director:
William Friedkin

Cast:
Ashley Judd
Michael Shannon
Harry Conick, Jr.
Lynn Collins

Official URL:

http://www.ZodiacMovie.com

Country: USA
Rating: R
Studio Name: Lionsgate Films
Running Time: 1 hr 21 mins
Release Date: May 25, 2007

Critics's Rating:
(2 out of 4 Reels) 

May 25, 2007

By Veronica Mixon

Never judge a film by its title! Bug, which is based on a play by Tracy Letts, is a haunting look at loneliness and madness. In the arid Oklahoma desert, Agnes (Ashley Judd) is a lonely, mentally exhausted woman living in a run-down motel and working in a gay honky tonk bar. Agnes has survived an abusive ex-husband and the abduction of her young son. She barely exists. Alcohol is her only comfort and her lesbian co-worker, R.C. (Lynn Collins) is her only friend. One night R.C. introduces her to a quiet guy, Peter (Michael Shannon) and Agnes suddenly connects to this ex-veteran who claims that the military used him for secret experiments with bugs. Even the appearance of her ex, Terry (played with redneck swagger by Harry Connick, Jr.) doesn’t shake Agnes’ confidence in Peter or his outrageous claims. But, there are mysterious things happening and bug bites do appear on Peter. What is really happening?

Unfortunately, Bug is being marketed as a horror film and it is far from it. This is an intense, scary psychological journey as Agnes follows Peter into madness – and they both totally breakdown mentally. R.C. realizes that her casual “party” attitude with liquor and sex has introduced real danger into the life of her best friend. Agnes is just too lonesome and needy for any human warmth that she can’t let Peter go. Their lovemaking at the beginning of the relationship breathes new life into her even as Peter begins to self-destruct. By the time, his doctor finds Peter, it is too late and the catastrophe that follows is unbelievable.

Ashley Judd is a fine actress and her film work in Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy and Where the Heart Is proves that. Despite getting briefly lost in shlocky ‘women-in-jeopardy’ genre films, Ms. Judd has crafted a complex sensibility of young women looking for fulfillment. Acting opposite relative newcomer, Michael Shannon, she is superb and she adds weight to his intense performance.

Nevertheless, veteran director William Friedkin, who is best known for To Live and Die in L.A., loses his way. Friedkin who often explores the lives of men under duress in the military and in the police, obviously hoped to shed light on trouble veteran. Unlike Benico Del Toro’s sniper in The Hunted, Peter is out to destroy himself and as presented, his personal demons are not the material for a horror film. Bug's dramatic allure quickly evaporates and the audience spends most of the film watching a man come unglued in a terrible bloody fashion.

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