Mud (2012)

Galen: "This shit never gets easy."

By Jeff Nichols
With Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland

When I was a child I read several books that revolved around boys on the cusp of puberty, and their travels away from home, living an adventurous and dangerous life on the run, learning a few hard lessons, and coming home changed. It's almost like a rite of of passage, the extreme desire to break away from the home, forging a connection with the land and nature, and a growing awareness of women and the confusion that is only to be expected afterwards as the protagonist knew little of how to communicate with girls whose presence was often absent in tight-knit male social circles.

But I felt that Mud departed from this common story line if only in the sense that his growing realizations of the complex nature of love and relationships were enriched with the parallel experiences of his soon-to-be-divorced parents, his newly-acquired girlfriend, and most importantly, through the experiences of Mud, a mysterious homeless man in search of his true love. The protagonist, Ellis, comes to meet Mud on an island when going to play with his friend, Neckbone. Soon, the two boys enter a pact with Mud to help him meet the love of his life, a beautiful woman named Juniper. Ellis soon finds himself deeply entangled in Mud's situation.

At first, the relationship between Mud and Ellis, which vacillates from mentor to friend to equal reminded me strongly of the relationship the character "Pip" has with the convict "Magwitch" in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. Pip in the novel was also tasked with providing a convict food, and knowing that society has cast him out. Similarly in this film, the two boys are faced with a choice to trust a man they clearly know is on the wrong side of the law. In the book, Magwitch ultimately provides for Pip in his growing years, and is responsible in a sense for bringing Pip together with the girl he will revere and love for all his life. I don't know that Mud would financially provide for the boy, but it is clear by the end of the film that Ellis' encounter with Mud profoundly affected and would continue to affect his life.

Of the recurring motifs in this film, the most noticeable is that of the snake. Mud has a snake tattooed on his arm, and tells the two boys a story about how dangerous a snake bite is, and that the antidote only works once. In an argument with Ellis' mother, Senior, his father, calls her a snake. And most glaringly, as narrated by Mud, the fear of the snake goes back to the early histories of mankind and women in certain tribes in the past would wrap a snake around their belly to scare a baby into labor.

For me this repeated symbol of the snake was biblically resonant as well--as the snake is reminiscent of Lilith, who is half woman and half snake. So for the purposes of this film and the puberty of the two boys, Ellis and Neckbone, and even of Mud and Senior and Galen (Neckbone's uncle) their problems with women and with love are as potent and fatal as a snake bite, as Lilith or the devil. It seems in the homo-social environment the male protagonists are exposed to color all women into dangerous and volatile species, much like the devil or Lilith or snakes, and they need to be in constant guard. Their obsession and fear of snakes is mirrored in their consuming passion and obsession with women. For Mud, it defines his life as he commits a crime he is constantly on the run for out of love for a woman and for Ellis, he too feels the sting of letting a girl too close to his heart. Ellis witnesses this with the disintegration of his parents' marriage as well, and comes to blame his mother for his father's unhappiness.

What was fascinating for me was the film's awareness and even manipulation of the fact that the men and boys in the film were unable to understand the women in their lives and were either reducing them to a villain and a "snake" or somehow allowing their presence and existence to make them become violent (as Mud is violent or as Ellis is--to which the girl he loves says something to the effect of "You can't punch all your problems away".)

The film to me seemed to come to one of its most graceful thematic climaxes when it showed its male protagonists witnessing and empathizing with the "other side of the story", the perspective of the "snake"-- most remarkably when Ellis witnesses Mud's long loved woman, Juniper, cry heartrendingly into a bed after an interaction with Mud, even though she had seemingly displayed callous and indifferent behavior the night before in a bar. Ellis' face in that scene was as raw as anything I have witnessed in cinema, at the realization that the emotions run far deeper than he could have imagined.

All this to say simply that this was a sumptuous and delightful film to watch. No pretensions, and the actors are brilliantly at ease with their roles. It felt honest and genuine and meaningful, and an experience not easily forgettable. There are scores of coming-of-age films, but this one bring something sweeter than any other I've seen--it shows just how long spanning the growing process is, and that puberty is not just about turning 14, but that the struggle with the self, with others, with love and relationships and life and meaning are those from which one learns from for the rest of their lives, even when they are 35, even when they are 80, and even when they are 14. To be it was endearing and beautiful to see the boyish confusion and deep earnestness in all of the characters, and how much they wanted to be good and to make their loved ones proud and safe. It was an instinct that spanned generations, and that came across in a wonderful and subtle way in this film.

I highly recommend this psychologically rich gem of a film. What beautiful and flawed and lovable characters. The sweetness of human connection, transcending gender and age.

90/100