In this stark independent drama, Virgil (Clint Jordan) is a small-time thief with a bad temper and poor social skills who winds up in prison for armed robbery. But Virgil wants to make something better of his life, and when he makes parole, he's determined to get (and keep) a decent job, hoping to someday find a good woman and start a family. While living in a halfway house, Virgil meets Ruby (Kirsten Russell), a drug addict who sometimes turns tricks to support her habit. While Rudy isn't quite
the sort of woman Virgil was dreaming of, they share a genuine affection for each other, and Virgil moves in with Ruby after getting a job as a janitor. Like Virgil, Ruby wants to straighten out her life, hoping to someday regain custody of her son, but both Ruby and Virgil find that a lifetime of emotional abuse and years of bad judgement are not simple things to overcome. Shot on digital video, Virgil Bliss had its premier at the 2001 Slamdance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
You've seen it before: the ex-con who stumbles while striving to assimilate back into society. But writer-director Joe Maggio and his able cast makes you care about this man's sorry journey in Virgil Bliss.
Virgil's naïveté isn't entirely believable, but his essential goodness is, thanks to a solid performance by Jordan, and that's really what makes this modern urban tragedy unusually affecting.
Low budget, high art and realism in this film about a convict getting out after a decade. The film has an almost documentary feel to it. Virgil is my favorite anti-hero since Silence of the Lambs. The big lug tries so hard to be good, and actually follows through on it, once he's released from prison. He's a
positive role model for his halfway house buddy, and love's his woman even though shes quite the wounded bird, and pecks.
Virgil gets a job, has a stable residence, and is in a relationship. As he gets set up in his new life, we see glimpses of how VB wound up in prison in the first place, and in the last moments of the film find him in the same circumstances as the crime that got him put away. Will he make the same choice? Regardless, you will still root for Virgil. That's the beauty of this film. Its all about VB.
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