Jolene

Jolene is a 2008 American drama film directed by Dan Ireland, based on the short story "Jolene: A Life" by E. L. Doctorow. It marked Jessica Chastain's film debut. It premiered on June 13, 2008, at the Seattle International Film Festival and was later released in the United States on October 29, 2010. Plot Fifteen-year-old orphan Jolene breaks free from foster care, marrying Mickey, a nerdy 20-year-old. They live with Mickey's Uncle Phil and Aunt Kay. On the night before her sixteenth birthday, Jolene asks Mickey about his mother, but he rebuffs her and starts crying. To make him feel better, she seduces him, but Mickey's inexperience leads to uncomfortable and joyless sex. The next day, Mickey and Uncle Phil wish Jolene "Happy Birthday" with Kay asking Jolene to clean the floor. Phil walks in and is aroused by Jolene's dancing while cleaning the floor and they have sex. They start a passionate affair, and Phil promises to build a house for the two of them, but asks Jolene to keep their relationship a secret, due to them both being married. Upon catching Phil and Jolene in bed, Kay kicks Jolene out of the house. After a physical altercation with Phil, Mickey drives off and kills himself by jumping off a bridge. Aunt Kay has Jolene placed in a juvenile mental institution, where she meets Cindy, a psychiatric nurse. Jolene, a talented artist, asks for paper and colored pencils to draw. Her request is denied, but she is allowed crayons, and she starts a small business selling crayon portraits to her fellow patients. Jolene is called to testify against Uncle Phil, and he is sentenced to eighteen months in prison for statutory rape. Cindy, a closeted lesbian, is immediately infatuated with Jolene and this culminates in another affair. Cindy breaks Jolene out of the mental hospital and hides her in her apartment. Using the money from her portraits, Jolene leaves and boards a bus west out of South Carolina. Jolene resorts to hitchhiking further west, supporting herself by prostitution. Jolene ends up in Arizona, working as a waitress at an outdoor diner. There, she meets Coco Leger, an aspiring musician and tattoo artist. A relationship blossoms between them and Jolene becomes a tattoo artist at Coco's parlor. After two weeks of dating, Jolene moves in with Coco and he convinces her to get married. After he passes out during sex, Coco is revealed to have a cocaine addiction, supporting his habit and the parlor by dealing cocaine.