Jesus` Son is based on a series of connected short stories by Denis Johnson which make a drug-hazed loose road movie about FH (Billy Crudup) and his relationship with Michelle (Samantha Morton).
The movie really starts as a series of not necessarily sequential flashbacks after Michelle, now an ex, comes to see FH after he`s been involved in a car crash. He thinks back to his first meeting with her and to their involvement with other off-the-wall characters in the winter of 1971 in Iowa.
Necessarily fragmented the film however has a rambling rhythm which manages to be in synch with its protagonist, the non-linear structure aligned to the synapses in FH`s brain. The emotional core of the film is the relationship between FH and Michelle and both Billy Crudup and Samantha Morton give wonderful, tender, intelligent performances and terrific support is given by Denis Leary, Dennis Hopper, Jack Black and Holly Hunter. Alison Mclean has been working mostly in television since her last feature, with Jesus` Son it`s easy to see how eager she is to embrace and push the limits of the big screen. This may be a film that for much of its length focuses on the life of heroin addiction but it attains moments of real beauty. I was so impressed by Jesus\' Son.
