Cady's Take:

While fleeing from the police on pitch-black Arkansas Ozarks mountain roads, Joe (Billy Bob Thornton) crashes his car. His wife, Chrystal ( Lisa Blount) breaks her neck in the collision and their young son, apparently thrown from the car, is never found and presumed dead.

After 20 years of incarceration, Joe returns in hopes of starting anew with his wife. The intervening years between the car crash and his parole have been cruel to both. He's a living, breathing ghost and she's half-insane and dealing with constant pain from both her neck and the unending grief for her lost baby.

Thornton generally does the stoic thing rather well, and this performance is no exception to the rule he has established over the past handful of years. Lisa Blount artfully captures the title character's unstable condition.

I don't quite understand the point of the disconnected sub plot concerning two University of Chicago staff members, one who is blind, as they travel into town in search material for a book about American folk music - but I must admit this was a smart film. It definitely generated some powerful scenes, just not enough to carry the movie to a satisfactory conclusion in my opinion.

If you require action to keep you interested in a 2 hour-long movie than don't waste your time with Chrystal. Things seem to happen in slow motion during this film, but I am sure that time must pass at a glacial speed in the Ozark Mountains.

Well imagine my surprise when I learned that Dwayne Dobber wrote and directed "Chrystal". Yes, I watch "Designing Women" reruns in the morning, ok? Anyway, "Chrystal" was written and directed by Ray McKinnon - go to imdb.com to look him up and you'll say "I know that guy! He's been in." and yes, he's been a quite a few movies.

This is an unusual story about Joe (Billy Bob Thornton) who returns home after serving 16 years in prison after a car crash resulted in the death of his infant son and injury of his wife, Chrystal. Set in the rural South, we follow Chrystal on her journey toward reclaiming her life and whether she can forgive Joe for past tragedy. McKinnon also co-stars as Snake, a good-old-boy who has it in for Joe and is more than willing to exact revenge by any means necessary.

There is an interesting sub-plot involving two men who are recording regional music, although how it fits into the overall story line is never clear. In spite of the fact that it didn't "come together" with the main plot it involved two of my favorite actors, Harry J. Lennix (E.R., Ray) and Johnny Galecki (Roseanne).

I enjoyed this "Chrystal" - it was sufficiently absorbing to keep me interested in finding out the resolution. This isn't a conventional movie but it could be worth the risk.