Jennifer Connelly is a white trash grifter in the trailer for Virginia

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

I love me some Jennifer Connelly, but she has gotten into this funk of playing the same characters over and over again. Well, she seems to finally be breaking out in VIRGINIA, the directorial debut for Dustin Lance Black. Check out the trailer.

Synopsis: Written and directed by Dustin Lance Black (MILK), VIRGINIA stars Jennifer Connelly in the title role as a beautiful yet unhinged single mother who struggles to raise her son Emmett (Harrison Gilbertson) while dreaming of escaping her small Southern boardwalk town. Her long time affair with the very married, Mormon Sheriff Richard Tipton (Ed Harris) is thrown into question when he decides to run for public office. Things are further complicated when Emmett begins a romantic relationship with Tipton’s daughter (Emma Roberts). Virginia and the town—populated by Amy Madigan, Toby Jones, Yeardley Smith—are full of secrets and everyone knows Virginia can only keep things together for so long. VIRGINIA is a funny, touching drama that looks at the American Dream and what it takes to keep it together.

I really dig this trailer. Jennifer Connelly completely exits her normal on screen persona and plays someone who is genuinely troubled. Ed Harris is good in everything and I like the play on Mormons, small towns, politics, and gossip. Dustin Lance Black was beginning to get pigeon-holed into one genre with MILK and J. EDGAR, but here he takes similar ideas and turns them on their head.

VIRGINIA opens in theaters on May 18th.