I had never heard of this film until I read the blurb that goes along with the trailer for Jayne Mansfield's Car, and even then the title didn't fill me with excitement. The cast however did, Robert Duvall, John Hurt, Frances O'Connor, Ray Stevenson, Kevin Bacon, Robert Patrick and Billy Bob Thornton not to mention the fact that it's co-written and directed by Thornton himself.

That was enough to get me watching the trailer, and while I have to say the story doesn't fill me with desire to race out and see it, once again it's the cast and the appearance of those famous faces that is.

Jayne Mansfield's Car tells the story of a man whose wife leaves him and heads to Britain to marry someone else beginning a bitter feud between the estranged husband, played by Robert Duvall, his ex-wife and the new man played by the superb John Hurt. Years pass and eventually so does his ex-wife whose body is returned to Alabama for the funeral and her British family with her. What follows is a clash of families and a slow understanding and acceptance of each other as well as a film that looks at some of the troubles of the time and the troubles that we all face in life.

The trailer looks okay and is filled with emotional strength, but I do wonder if it's going to gain a lot of exposure. So far it's been seen at the Berlin Film Festival and it's getting a DVD and Blu-ray release in Australia but nowhere else so far, and that's a little disappointing. Perhaps we'll get to see it appear on demand, which isn't such a bad thing these days.

The trailer for Jayne Mansfield's Car comes through Le Blog du Cinema's Tweet and The Playlist, its well worth a look for some great actors and the promise of some great performances:

I'm just not so sure about the setting. I can only assume that the time period of the sixties and the Mansfield car has some significance to the story and perhaps the writers, but let's hope it makes strong sense and feels right when we see the film.