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Summary:
A quiet war veteran spends the night at a white trash woman's small apartment. He soon starts freaking her the hell out when the place starts getting infested with bugs. He's talking the wire-tapping kind, and literally real bugs as well. She soon starts to think that his crazy antics are starting to make sense, and things start to REALLY take a downhill turn into obscure weirdliness after that!

Review:
Michael Shannon reprises the role he did for the play that this movie is based off of. He did a pretty outstanding job as a loon! Ashley Judd also makes a knockout performance as Agnes. Then, for short spurts Harry Connick Jr. shows up to be a crazy asshole, and three certainly is company in this case! I was tripley impressed with each of these actors' performances. Shannon went from a quiet, introverted man with a very strange vibe and turned into an all out bat-shit crazy psycho. Judd was amazing with her open vulnerability, and as the movie progresses she becomes more commanding, and disturbing as the minutes ticked by. Ol' Harry was scary as hell, too. He seems like the nicest fellow in real life, singing those kindly tunes. Then he's the Copycat killer and an abusive ex-con! Only goes to show you don't always know when someone's got that darker side in them.

Bug begins as a simple enough story about a drifter that convinces Agnes to let him stay at her place. Then, the smoke alarm goes off. Agnes starts worrying about her abusive man stalking her since he's just gotten out of prison, and Peter Evans is there to help complicate her issues with this guy. But soon enough, Peter begins talking about bugs, conspiracies, "The Man" and insanely wild tales of war crimes and PsychOps. I'm following along with the ride, even though I have no idea how far this train will travel before it stops.
Next thing I know, Agnes also starts seeing bugs and other shit, and somewhere along the way - between my total respect for Judd's amazing energy and rock-solid selling of her part - I was derailed. The last half hour took me to a destination of insanity that jumped right over my head. I was more than willing to feel for Agnes' position and investment in Peter's issues, but I didn't think her evolution progressed slowly enough. I would have been willing to wait around watching Judd and Shannon riff off of one another like two guitar virtuosos for another 15 minutes. The metamorphosis could have been more gradual, and the final acts would have made me feel less detached and mystified.

I recommend Bug just because the three main actors were totally kickass in their roles. Out of the three, I'd say that Judd was the most energetic. Michael Shannon was the most wacko, and Harry Connick Jr. was the most evil - and perhaps the most sane? - of this Wild Bunch. I can't give a real high final score simply because shit just went a little too far "out there" for me to accept. In this case, 20 more minutes might have made the movie better for me. Is it in their head? Is this in ONE of their heads? Is it all real? This is one of those ambiguous endings that didn't work for me. Still worth a watch because of the amazing performances, though.

GRADE: C+

Reviewed 1/26/08