CULTURE: SECTION: FILM SUB-
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ilmmaker Kelly Reichardt may not carry the recognition of a big-name Hollywood director, but her films’ subjects are rooted in one of the best-known themes in American cinema: the West. Her 2016 film, Certain Women, depicts the loosely intertwined stories of women living in rural Montana: an unfulfilled lawyer played by Laura Dern, an unhappy wife (Michelle Williams), and Lily Gladstone’s portrayal of a sequestered rancher seeking out a relationship with a young lawyer played by Kristen Stewart. Based on short stories by Montana-raised author Maile Meloy, the Montana landscape is the thread that ties the narratives together. Like many of Reichardt’s films, including Meek’s Cutoff and Wendy and Lucy, Certain Women has been labeled a feminist Western for its unassuming, relatable and at times heartbreaking renderings of everyday life in the Rockies. NPR pop culture critic John Powers noted on Fresh Air that its “heroines, all tremendously well-acted, are marked by their bottled-up uncertainty.” Alice Gregory celebrated Reichardt’s ability to portray “women moving through an uneasy world,” in The New York Times Magazine. Presenting Western life through the lens of its notable women is not new; Reichardt just accomplishes it without the romance. The opening shot of Certain Women offers an expansive panorama of a long train zipping through a beautiful sweeping vista, with a hint of decayed urbanization visible on the edge of the frame. Kirk Ellis, a celebrated screenwriter and producer, as well as the president of the Western Writers of America, knew right away what Reichardt intended to do. “She is going to take the classical aesthetics of a Western and spin them ‘round in a totally contemporary way, with characters you aren’t used to seeing in classic Western films,” he said. Dern’s character is tangled up in a messy romantic relationship and dealing with a bluecollar client who won’t take her legal advice, until a male associate echoes her assessment.
Williams plays a busy wife, with an uninterested husband and a brooding daughter, fretting over building an authentic Montana home. Gladstone, the isolated rancher, stumbles on a night class at the local school, taught by a young lawyer discouraged by her four-hour drive from Livingston to the small town of Belfry, just to teach a handful of students. After each class, the rancher and Stewart’s character forge a connection at a nearby diner. Marked by the somber and pristine Montana winters, rugged landscapes and sparsely populated towns, the locale is as important as the plot, setting the tone for the challenges each character faces. “It is the expansiveness of it; it means different things to different people,” says Ellis. “For some, it is the untouched, before the hand of man has corrupted it. For others, it is the physical manifestation of the spirit of independence.” >>
M T O U T L AW. C O M / MOUNTAIN
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