The Ballad of Mary King

Authors: James Somerton
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada

“The Ballad of Mary King”

Directed By: Quentin Tarantino
Written By: Quentin Tarantino

Principal Cast:

Uma Thurman as Mary King
Bruce Willis as Gary King
Alexander Michaeletos as Harry King
Samuel L. Jackson as Detective Brass
Michael Madsen as Detective Calus
Daryl Hannah as Sherry Brown

Tagline: "Crazy Mary Killed Her Kid / Crazy Mary Ran and Hid / Crazy Mary Got Put Away / But She’ll Be Back Again… Some Day"

Synopsis: Mary King is the perfect housewife. Her house is immaculate at all times, her meals are always perfect, her hair never greys, and her family makes the Brady’s look like the Mansons. She lives in the small town of West Beach, California (which is really nowhere near a beach. The town was named that so that it might attract more tourists). But there’s a problem in Mary’s small town. Some people have moved in and are cooking something in their basement.

It’s Meth and when Mary catches her sun doing it, she kills him. Then she kills her husband… just in case. She chops up the bodies and places them in bags which she then make airtight with one of her many as-seen-on-TV appliances. She hides the bodies in the basement freezer and goes along with her perfect life. But the police are suspicious and even Mary King can’t keep up the façade for too long before it drives her crazy.

What the press would say:

Quentin Tarantino hits another one out of the park with “The Ballad of Mary King”. The film opens just after Mary King has killed her son, and the film jumps back and forth in time, in typical Tarantino fashion, until all the pieces of the puzzle are laid in place. Uma Thurman is amazing as the demented housewife that would rather die than have anything bad said about her or her family. Her one redeeming quality is her relationship with her paraplegic sister Sherry (played to perfection by Daryl Hannah). Her husband, Gary, is played by Bruce Willis who makes the roll sympathetic enough to feel sorry for (know throughout the entire movie that he will die) but just macho enough to think that he might be a little too overbearing. Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Madsen play two detectives who are trying to find out what happened to Gary and Harry King, all the while fighting off the urge to sleep with the seductive housewife. Tarantino gives his usual crispy dialogue a suburban spin as the story jumps around. This isn’t his usual crime story fair but it’s still in the same vein as his other films. Critics are raving about the film, calling it a “Thriller Masterpiece” and saying “Don’t blink or you might miss the best ending in years”.

POSSIBLE NOMINATIONS:

Best Picture
Best Director – Quentin Tarantino
Best Screenplay – Quentin Tarantino
Best Actress – Uma Thurman
Best Supporting Actor – Bruce Willis
Best Supporting Actor – Samual L. Jackson
Best Supporting Actress – Daryl Hannah