About to go in for a prostate operation and in need of feminine comfort, Maurice makes the uncouth, slatternly young woman the nearest target for his seductions.

NEWYORKER: Venus

And best of all is Cate Blanchett, who, thanks to camera trickery, plays both halves of a conversation between a starlet and her resentful, bohemian cousin she alternates between the slatternly and the prim with only a wig and body language.

NEWYORKER: Coffee and Cigarettes

The man really is a romantic, richly nourished by self-delusion, and Mr. McConaughey, with his musical voice and commanding physique, sustains a delicate balance between Mud's poetic yearning for his girlfriend, Juniper she's played to slatternly perfection by Reese Witherspoon and his survival instinct, which prompts him to enlist his naive acolytes as accomplices to his escape.

WSJ: Classic, Your Name Is 'Mud' | Mud | At Any Price | The Reluctant Fundamentlist | Pain & Gain | Film Reviews by Joe Morgenstern