A 13-year-old girl is abandoned by her meth-addicted former-groupie mother, after she informs Ethan Brand, an alcoholic, on-the-road, fading rock star, that Janie is his daughter, and he is not happy about it.
The film's soundtrack was released on October 11, 2011 featuring songs written by Irish singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes and Israeli-born American Eef Barzelay. The songs on the album are performed by Abigail Breslin, Aleesandro Nivola, William Fitzsimmons and Gemma Hayes.
Reception
Janie Jones garnered mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 55% approval rating, based on 31 reviews, with an average score of 5.3 out of 10. Metacritic gave the film a 52 out of 100 rating, based on 16 reviews. Noel Murray of The A.V. Club gave the film a B− grade. Despite the tonal dissonance in Rosenthal's direction of his own script, he called it "one of the more realistic depictions of what the rock 'n' roll lifestyle is really like", adding that the songs written by both Barzelay and Hayes make the concert scenes "look and sound like actual alt-rock shows." Eric Kohn of IndieWire commended Rosenthal for being able to sidestep formulaic contrivances with filmmaker's restraint and trusting his two main leads to give their characters subtly, saying that "lthough not exemplary, Janie Jones at least manages to give its tired scenario a sense of legitimacy." Nivola and Breslin both received differing opinions of their performances. The Washington Posts Ann Hornaday called them "a terrific mismatched pair" that can "harmonize not only figuratively but literally." Ian Buckwalter of NPR felt that the focus shift to its two main leads in the second half improves the film slightly, saying that "Breslin remains as charismatic and instantly likable as she was in her Oscar-nominated role in Little Miss Sunshine, and the often under-the-radar Nivola shows the makings of a star." He added that the film carries a "lightweight sweetness" due to the chemistry between them. In a review for the Los Angeles Times, Robert Abele said that Nivola "does a serviceable job conveying a certain kind of brittle, hotheaded flameout with remnants of musical soulfulness worth reviving" but felt that Breslin wasn't given much opposite him in a role that "should feel like more of a title character than a programmatic catalyst for his redemptive change." Kyle Smith of the New York Post said that the two central characters "spend most of the movie performing forgettable songs, and the inevitable bonding and redemption scenes contain all the excitement of an evening spent deleting spam."
