"Bug" is a different kind of woman-in-peril movie starring Ashley Judd, which has long been its own specific genre. Judd is indeed in peril here once again, but she gets to prove she can actually act with some depth and not just look pretty under strain. Whatever unexpected ability she shows in the early scenes of this paranoid thriller go utterly to waste, however, as the film spirals ridiculously out of control by the end.
Judd stars as Agnes, a lonely waitress at a run-down bar who lives in an even rattier motel, subsisting on a diet of cigarettes, vodka and pot. But her pathetic life gets shaken up by a quiet drifter named Peter (Michael Shannon, whose presence and delivery are riveting). Once Agnes and Peter fall for each other, it doesn't take long for him to suck her into his delusional conspiracy theories involving the military, scientific testing, chemical technology and .
.. bugs!
Hence the title. The former soldier says he's the victim of an experiment in which insects have been inserted into his body as transmitters, and now he's on the run from the government. Or something.
"Bug" ends shrilly, overzealously, explosively. Literally. It's sound and fury signifying nothing, although it was probably intended to be profound.
Last modified: May 24. 2007 12:00AM
'Bug' is a different kind of woman-in-peril movie starring Ashley Judd, which has long been its own specific genre. Judd is indeed in peril here once again, but she gets to prove she can actual .
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