From the memoir of the same name comes the film adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy for Netflix, starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close directed by Ron Howard. Following a real family across generations, J. D. Vance's original writing aimed to present an authentic representation of a white working-class Appalachian family; does that translate well to the screen in this award season hopeful?
Employing every cliche in the book and ticking off Oscar bait conventions like it is on commission, Ron Howard's latest has been designed with one goal in mind: award season success. But, for a film that makes no qualms about its intention to sweep up some goldware over the coming months, it sure is bad: an overwrought adaptation that serves bland melodrama at best, eye-rolling cringe at worst, Ron Howard's adaptation squanders its talent on a lifeless, inauthentic and often painful slog.
Perhaps it is due to Howard attempting to purge the controversial political aspects of the novel from his screen imagining, but Hillbilly Elegy is so half-baked in its portrayal of this Appalachian family that it feels as if you are only gawping at a shouty, dysfunctional, troubled family in a feature bordering on poverty porn, told through a voyeuristic lens with no intention of exploring them with any depth. No meaningful discussion of culture, economy or class can be found in this almost-two-hour film, something which could have provided at least some insight or enlightenment and prevented it from becoming such a sluggish chore to endure.
Furthermore, Elegy's failure to construct any likeable or remotely interesting characters that we can begin to understand or sympathise with robs it of the chance to impress or move on a purely emotional level, with the time-hopping structure and cross-generation flipping stifling any arc or development that may allow us an opportunity to connect with these people and their situation. Hindered again by the poor dialogue and with no stylistic flair to speak of, only an excessive smattering of montages that become quickly tiresome, there are few saving graces to speak of.
Hillbilly Elegy is far from anybody's finest hour, particularly the typically-faultless Amy Adams, who delivers an uncharacteristically weak performance lacking in her usual refinement and grace. Adams has played tempestuous characters before but with a screenplay that fails to provide her Bev Vance with any shade or texture, she is unable to fully commit, with no other option but to pad her performance out with cheaper shouting and frequent violent outbursts. Adams is so above this and it is probably the closest to a bad performance she could give. Glenn Close fares hardly any better and although she is in it less, she certainly chews up the scenery all for its worth. In short, no one emerges from this unscathed.
A perfectly fine but uninspired score from Hans Zimmer summarises Hillbilly Elegy's failures: all the big names and prestigious talent in the world cannot salvage a terribly misguided script when they are not given the tools to reach their full potential. Hillbilly is both bad and boring, a missed opportunity that ignores the more interesting social themes and churns out a bland and lifeless in its place. There's nothing poetic about an Elegy that wastes Amy Adams and Glenn Close.
Summary: There's nothing poetic about a film that wastes Amy Adams and Glenn Close, with Ron Howard's Hillbilly Elegy a bad, bland and boring feature that does not deserve the awards it was so shamelessly aiming for.