4 stars out of 5
Maybe you have a work husband or work wife. Back in 2012–13, I had an unemployment wife. Laid-off Lex and I would go to the movies, often ending up at the Crocodile Lounge on 14th Street where you’d get a free pizza with every drink. (Toppings extra.) One of the movies we really loved during that time: What Maisie Knew directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel.
It’s a decade later, and McGehee and Siegel finally have another film out — Montana Story. And where Maisie was a city tale about parents and the effect of their actions/inactions on a young child, this rural story focuses on mid-20s siblings still coping with Dad’s behavior from long ago. We first meet Cal (Owen Teague), back at the ranch because Dad is dying. Eventually sister Erin (Haley Lu Richardson) shows up, surprisingly — she’d run away 7 years before and hadn’t kept in touch. The trailer led me to believe this was a road picture, with Erin rescuing their old horse and taking him to New York. And that is a plot point, but what this truly is is a family drama I feel many can relate to.
The death of a parent and selling of a home is familiar turf for many of us, or someday will be. (Hell, just the other weekend I saw Peter Holsapple sing his aching song “Inventory” on the very same subject.) Cal is mostly dealing with the logistics and finances, while Erin is paying the emotional cost, revisiting the pain that caused her to flee in the first place. Which leads to confronting the siblings’ unresolved issues.
I’ve only seen Teague in the IT movies and a Black Mirror episode but he hasn’t really stood out for me before. I did think Richardson was solid as the lead in Edge of Seventeen, which I caught on HBO a while back. But both actors are quite good here, Teague laid-back and matter-of-fact, Richardson a tightly-wound type-A, unwilling to unravel.
The filmmakers take their time filling us in on the backstory. For the longest stretch, I didn’t even know if Cal or Erin was older. (Surprise: Smaller, younger-looking Erin is the older one.) Even so while parsing out the details, they still over-rely on exposition. (“Hey medical aide, let me tell you our entire family history.” “Hey sister, during this car ride I’ll tell you of my life for the past 7 years.”) McGehee and Siegel, listen to your own line of dialogue written for the medical aide: “Some things are clear without explanation.”
And yet, as the drama slowly ramps up, I was drawn in more and more. The story is wrapped in the beautiful openness/emptiness of Montana, with a couple of lovely songs by Kevin Morby added in, so the movie looks good, sounds good, and feels real.
Jack Silbert, curator