THE NEON BIBLE

THE NEON BIBLE is a glamorous confirmation of the human capacity for joy in the face of incredible negations of life. An adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winning novelist John Kennedy Toole's first novel, director Terence Davies employs his distinctive, imaginative style in this tale of a dysfunctional family set in 1940's rural Georgia. The film tells the story of teenage David, his unstable mother and his glamorous Aunt Mae, a small-time singer down on her luck but full of optimism. His volatile, abusive father dies, his mother loses her grip on reality, and the one saving grace is his aunt, to whom he is drawn both for her seemingly exotic past and for the love he senses from her. Gena Rowlands' warm, intelligent performance makes Aunt Mae all the more believable and powerful. And once again, as in other Davies Films, popular songs of the era evoke an almost magical spell that gives hope in the midst of life's traumas; happiness in spite of difficulty.