Certain Women

 

Certain Women 2016

• Director: Kelly Reichardt
• Based on stories by Maile Malloy
• Cast: Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart, Lily Gladstone, James Le Gros, Jared Harris, Sara Rodier, Rene Auberjornois
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Laura Dern – The Fault in Our Stars, Star Wars the Last Jedi, Wild, I Am Sam, Citizen Ruth, A Perfect World, Jurassic Park, Wild at Heart
• Michelle Williams – The Greatest Showman, Wonderstruck, Manchester by the Sea, My Week with Marilyn, Shutter Island, Brokeback Mountain, Imaginary Heroes, station Agent, The United States of Leland, A Thousand Acres
• Kristen Stewart – Clouds over Sils Maria, Twilight, The Runaways, Welcome to the Rileys, Jumper, Into the Wild, Undertow
• Jared Harris – Fringe, Sherlock Holmes a Game of Shadows, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Igby Goes Down, Lost in Space, Last of the Mohicans
• Why? Possibly interesting
• Seen: 25 September 2022      

       Laura (coincidentally – Dern): a small-town lawyer in Montana with a lunch-time lover Ryan (Le Gros) who wants to end things and a client Will (Harris) who hounds her daily, won’t listen to what she says and ends up taking a hostage and she’s the one to talk him down.

       Gina (Williams): alienated from her husband Ryan and daughter Guthrie (Rodier), trying to build an authentic old stone house, depressed about the lack of interest, even opposition from her family.

       Jamie (named the Rancher in the credits but for some reason Jamie in the subtitles) (Gladstone): has a winter job at a rancher seeing to the horses. Happens to attend an evening class in school law and forms a one-sided friendship with the teacher Elizabeth (Stewart) who a four-hour drive each way, twice a week, to teach the class.

       These stories of four women and one man, desperately lonely, struggling, exhausted but enduring, are riveting. Why do so some people write such hatefully negative reviews? Fine, if you find it boring and slow. No, there’s no action, it’s unusual, we all have different taste in films. No one says you’ve got to like it but why are you so mean and vicious about it? Do I detect macho misogynism?

       Fortunately, many others like it. I’m one of them. It’s beautifully minimalistic, visually wonderful, profoundly simple, and brilliantly acted.      

5* of 5