''Virginia'' (originally titled ''What's Wrong with Virginia'') is a 2010 film written and directed by

Dustin Lance Black Dustin Lance Black (born June 10, 1974) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and LGBT rights activist. He is known for writing the film ''Milk'', for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2009. He has also sub ...

and starring

Jennifer Connelly Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December 12, 1970) is an American actress. She began her career as a child model before making her acting debut in the 1984 crime film ''Once Upon a Time in America''. After having worked as a model for several year ...

Ed Harris Edward Allen Harris (born November 28, 1950) is an American actor and filmmaker. His performances in ''Apollo 13'' (1995), '' The Truman Show'' (1998), '' Pollock'' (2000), and '' The Hours'' (2002) earned him critical acclaim and Academy Award ...

Emma Roberts Emma Rose Roberts (born February 10, 1991 Additional on October 9, 2016) is an American actress. Known for her work in film and television projects of the horror and thriller genres, she has received various accolades, including a Young Arti ...

Carrie Preston Carrie Preston (born June 21, 1967) is an American actress known for her work on the television series ''True Blood'', ''Person of Interest (TV series), Person of Interest'', ''Crowded (TV series), Crowded'', ''The Good Wife'', ''The Good Fight ...

, and

Toby Jones Tobias Edward Heslewood Jones''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 7 September 1966) is an English actor. Jones made his film debut in Sally Potter's period drama '' Orlando'' in 1992. H ...

Plot

In a small town, mentally unstable Virginia has a two-decade affair with a local married sheriff, Dick Tipton. Her son Emmett (

Harrison Gilbertson Harrison Gilbertson (born 29 June 1993) is an Australian actor. Early life Gilbertson was born in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of Julie Sloan and Brian Gilbertson. Career Gilbertson began acting at the age of six when he played the chara ...

) acts as her protector. During Emmett's quest for the truth of his father's identity, he begins a relationship with Tipton's daughter Jessie.

Cast

as Virginia *

as Sheriff Richard "Dick" Tipton *

as Jessie Tipton *

as Emmett *

Amy Madigan Amy Marie Madigan (born September 11, 1950) is an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1985 film '' Twice in a Lifetime''. Her other film credits include '' Love Child'' (1982), ''Places ...

as Roseanna Tipton *

as Betty *

as Max *

Alex Frost Alexander Robert Frost (born February 17, 1987) is an American actor best known for his roles in ''Elephant'' and ''Drillbit Taylor''. Early life Frost was born in Portland, Oregon. He attended high school at the Arts & Communication Magnet ...

as Josh *

Yeardley Smith Martha Maria Yeardley Smith ( ; born July 3, 1964) is an American actress, artist and writer. She currently stars as the voice of Lisa Simpson on the long-running animated television series ''The Simpsons''. Smith became an actress in 1982 aft ...

as Mrs. Whitaker *

Paul Walter Hauser Paul Walter Hauser (born October 15, 1986) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his supporting roles in the films '' Cruella'', ''I, Tonya'', '' Late Night'', ''BlacKkKlansman'', and ''Da 5 Bloods''. In 2019, Hauser had his breakout ...

as Dale

Production

The film was shot in

West Michigan West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids- Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Pe ...

(Holland, Grand Haven, South Haven, Saugatuck, Zeeland) during fall of 2009 in seven weeks on local streets, homes, and businesses. The project was filmed in Michigan, the decision having been taken to film there due to a state program offering incentives to the entertainment industry. To create Virginia's style, Dustin Lance Black requested Jennifer Connelly's advice to design the set of the character's house, as well as the selection of wardrobe she uses through the film. Throughout filming and for its premiere at the TIFF, the film was titled ''What's Wrong With Virginia''. Black re-cut the film following its poor initial reception, and it was subsequently re-titled ''Virginia'' for theatrical release. ''

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...

'' quoted Black as saying that the film "was pretty bad. So I opened up the edit and got a new editor and went back to script and finishing that film."

Release

The film was first shown on September 15, 2010 at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

(TIFF). On January 17, 2012, ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' announced that Entertainment One have acquired North American distribution rights to ''Virginia''. The film premièred in U.S theaters on May 18, 2012.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 11% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 4.35/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Brave, autobiographical, but also completely off the mark, ''Virginia'' is a frantic drama that fails to pull the viewer in." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 33 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". While noting that the film was "propped up by a strong central performance" from Jennifer Connelly, Katey Rich of ''Cinema Blend'' reported that it was "all over the place in every imaginable way." ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'' felt that "the film is tonally all over the place, eventually settling in a rut that comes a lot closer to resembling bad camp than edgy satire." '' Screen International'' similarly found the film tonally confused, writing that "the screenplay becomes as busy and overloaded as a packed roller-coaster, testing the viewer’s patience along the way and offering little in the way of a payoff." Several of the reviewers who saw the film at TIFF singled out Connelly's acting for praise. Rich wrote that "Connelly has rarely looked more fragile or dangerous; like Virginia she's adrift in a world that doesn't quite appreciate her, and just as you root for Virginia to pull it together and leave town, you root for Connelly to track down a better movie." Chase Whale of ''Gordon and the Whale'' wrote that "Jennifer Connelly is normally the bombshell and that's still here, but her comedic elements come into full fruition which loses a little bit of the sex appeal and adds more of the "this girl got herself acting chops" appeal."

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Virginia 2010 films 2010 drama films American drama films American independent films Fictional portrayals of schizophrenia Films about Mormonism Films shot in Michigan American nonlinear narrative films Films with screenplays by Dustin Lance Black Films produced by Christine Vachon Killer Films films 2010 independent films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films