Jennifer Connelly’s Virginia State of Mind

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Jennifer Connelly on the big screen. Trust the actress whose past fine fare includes such dark beauties as Requiem for a Dream and Little Children to choose complexity over ease in her latest role, the titular part in Virginia written and directed by Academy Award winner Dustin Lance Black, best known for Milk. At a Cinema Society screening Monday night, hosted by Shiseido (Connelly is one of their latest faces), guests like Paul Haggis and Juliette Lewis settled in at the Crosby Hotel to watch Connelly play a Southern small town single mother having an affair with the local Mormon Sheriff (Ed Harris). When he decides to run for office, things take a turn for the worse, further complicated when Connelly’s son (Harrison Gilbertson) takes up with Harris’ daughter (Emma Roberts). After the screening, everyone moved to the hotel’s cozy basement quarters for drinks and passed food.