Matthew McConaughey's Name Is 'Mud'

Jeff Nichols' Mud, screening at the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival, may change a few people's views of its star Matthew McConaughey; the film is quite a change from the usual McConaughey romcom vehicle. As the titular character, McConaughey plays an escaped convict who befriends a young boy (Tree of Life's Tye Sheridan) and uses him and his friend as go-betweens in his attempts to dodge bounty hunters and reconnect with his on-and-off girlfriend, played by Reese Witherspoon.

Fans of McConaughey's previous work need not worry too much, though. Deep down, McConaughey says, Mud is really a movie about love. "I guess it's a fairy tale about love, in terms of what this boy finds out about love through Mud," he told Empire. "And you don't see that many scripts that are good, sorta Stand By Me, summer-of-love fairytales like that."

Mud, also starring Sam Sheppard, Michael Shannon and Sarah Paulson, is due in theaters in 2013.

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—MATT GERISH

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