The film Neo Ned is about acceptance, a need to belong and it is about a white supremacist that falls in love with a black woman while they are both in a mental institution. This film stars Jeremy Renner (from The Town) and Gabrielle Union (from Daddy's Little Girls). Ned, played by Jeremy Renner is sentenced to a mental hospital after he is charged with having been involved in a racially motived murder. Ned is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, but as the movie progress' it is shown that Ned's love for Rachael, played by Gabrielle Union, is not so strange.
Rachael (Union) is admitted to the mental hospital because she believes that she is possessed by the spirit of Adolf Hitler and shouts out in German. At first Ned (Renner) mocks and provokes Rachael, but then over time they start to open up to one another and reveal their past. Rachael reveals to Ned that when she was younger she was sexually abused by a man who ran a child photography studio. She also shares with him that she has a young daughter.
Later in the film Ned tells Rachael the real secret behind the hate crime that landed him in the mental hospital.
When Ned is released from the mental institution and is at the bus station he changes into his racist gear (black boots and pants and white t-shirt with a black swastika printed on the front). In this scene one would think that Ned is going back to his old ways until he cashs in his bus ticket, steals a car with ease and sleeps outside the mental hospital he was just released from just so he can follow Rachael and the other patients on there outing to the zoo that was taking place the next day.
At the zoo Ned convinces Rachael to run off with him and so she does. Outside of the hospital the two do not seem to mesh so well. Ned is childish and immature were as Rachael is level headed and mature.
Ned shows his immaturity in many ways such as continuing to wear his swastika shirt even though he was fully involved with Rachael and he would throw tantrums like a child. In one scene they are at the grocery store and he is riding on the front of shopping cart like a child would.
Eventually they break up and Ned forces Rachael to confront the man that molested her when she was young. I will not tell what happens at the end, but it is something I did not expect.
I had never heard of the movie Neo Ned. I was flipping through Netflix and thought it would be good to watch because it starred Jeremy Renner and Gabrielle Union. I was glad I picked it. Neo Ned was an independent film that was first shown at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival. It was written by Tim Boughn and directed by Van Fischer. Neo Ned has won 10 film awards and premiered on Starz in August 2008 and was picked up for distribution by CodeBlack Entertainment in 2008.
This film has a great love story, theme, a few comical moments and some good life lessons. I recommend Neo Ned for your viewing pleasure.
