Jayne Mansfield's Car (R)

synopsis

The film looks at two colorful clans brought together by the death of a woman who was married, first to the Southerner Jim Caldwell and then to the British Kingsley Bedford. When she is brought back home for burial, the two families meet for the first time at the Caldwells' Alabama home with uneasy curiosity. The culture clash of the Vietnam Era, and of the Old World versus the Old South, become a backdrop for the Caldwells' and the Bedfords' heartfelt and sometimes hilarious struggles with long-held resentments, family rivalries and secrets, and the memories of war and how it shaped three generations of fathers and sons.