Writer/director Kelly Reichardt believes in the cumulative
power of the subdued aesthetics. Her shot seems to be going on and on, showcasing
nothing but desolate space. Nothing important seems to be happening in the characters’
lives; none of the startling epiphanies and no hope for transformations. But as I said,
the muted visuals gradually accumulate a power to make us profoundly understand
the internalized pain of the written characters. The title plus the story line of
Reichardt’s latest movie “Certain Women” (2016) may give some idea to the viewer. Of course, the film-maker’s intent was to comment on the strong, but
undervalued women. But Reichardt is more interested in designing a refined
visual language than hurriedly shove in her themes. The result is that she doesn’t weave just
another feminist or girl-power cinema. “Certain Women” is certainly about the
quiet desperation of four independent females trying to carve a place for
themselves. These women face the terror of getting cold-shouldered. Something
dramatic happens in each of the film’s chapters, although the director
concentrates on the multitude of inexpressible sorrows than on the possibilities for drama. The film-maker
keeps her camera on these dejected women, not only capturing their words, but
also studying the space around them, their silences, and awkward pauses.
Based on the American writer Maile Melloy’s short story collection,
“Certain Women” tells three very loosely connected tales of four women, living
in the oft-forgotten American Midwestern region. Each story is moody and very quiet. The four
women live in and around the small town called ‘Livingston’, in Wyoming. The
film opens with series of outdoor shots, presenting the vastness of the
picturesque landscape before settling in on the main street of the small town
and three majestic mountain ranges hovers in the background. But, despite the
land’s vastness, the strong-willed women of the town aren’t able to find their
footing. In the first story, personal injury lawyer Laura Wells (Laura Dern) mulls
over that “It would be so lovely to think that if I were a man, I could explain
the law and people would listen … that would be so restful.” Laura has a
raging, needy client Fuller (Jared Harris) who treats her more like a
girlfriend & therapist than as a lawyer. He repeatedly ignores her legal
advice on his lawsuit, but accepts with a simple ‘okay’ when an old male lawyer
gives the same advice. Hence, Laura makes the aforementioned statement. In
fact, that’s the only time the characters speak about their frustration. For
most part, when reality chews them over, the women just grit their teeth and
move forward.
Gina Lewis (Michelle Williams) is a successful business woman with an unaffectionate teenage
daughter and an unfaithful husband (James LeGros), who is having an affair with
attorney Laura Wells. Gina plans to build an authentic household for her family
using old sand-stones. The family is camping out in a tent, while laying the
plans for their new home. Gina’s husband stands by her plans to ease some of
his guilt. The search for sand-stones brings Gina to negotiate with an elderly
widower Albert (Rene Auberjonois). His yard is piled with sandstone that
belonged to a schoolhouse, torn down long ago. The negotiation incites Albert
to launch into a hushed monologue, stating what it means for him to give away
these sand-stones. In the negotiation, Gina gets slighted just like Laura got
slighted while offering her counsel. May be the unmindful nature of Albert is
due to his old age, but then he could just hate her for asking something of a
symbolic value. It’s left ambiguous. The film’s final, long segment is set in
town called Belfry, a four hour drive from Livingston. A preoccupied law school
graduate Elizabeth Travis aka Beth (Kristen Stewart) travels twice a week
between Livingston and Belfry to give evening classes for those interested in
school law. A lonely ranch hand named Jamie (Lily Gladstone), in search of some
human contact, follows people into the class. She forms an instant connection
with Beth and after each class they run down to a local diner. They both don’t
make any big speeches, but Jamie’s measured gaze and warm smile conveys a
yearning for connection with Beth. However, Beth is too exhausted to teach the
class, let alone understand Jamie’s yearning.
Director Kelly Reichardt (“Wendy & Lucy”, “Old Joy”,
“Meek’s Cutoff”) with her delicately restrained visuals and nebulous narrative
is gradually turning out to be an auteur of sorts. She wonderfully studies
helpless individuals (mostly women) who come to terms with life’s
uncertainties. Most of her characters are lonely who look at each other from a
vantage point, unable to help or at least make a connection. Her women
characters are also not exemplary and working towards an agenda. The women
aren’t representatives of something. They are just part of the whole human race
with the same existential angst like us. By slowing down the time and listening
to their haunting silences, Reichardt powerfully captures their inner pain. The
beauty in her movie is that the women don’t bawl like a child. They just keep
moving through the mundanity and disappointments.
The most affecting of the three segments in “Certain Women”
was Jamie’s unrequited love. The lonely girl from the ranch is conscious about
the unstable nature of her connection with Beth. The introverted girl comes up
with a grand gesture of taking Beth on a horseback ride. But she doesn’t know
that it is a gesture that’s lost on preoccupied Beth. Jamie follows it up with grander
gesture, which only bewilders the other girl. The final scene between Jamie and
Beth was very hard to look at because we see little escape of emotions in their
hardened faces. In the ride back to town, we expect Jamie to break down ad cry
aloud, but the sequence unfurls in a magnificent manner. The soft crash of her
truck into a fenced cornfield may be indicating that it was only soft thud to
her heart. Later observing the mundanity of her life in the farm, we can’t help
shed a tear or two for ‘certain women’, subtly divided by class and kept at a
distance. Reichardt and cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt precisely capture
the rugged naturalism of the atmosphere. The way she keeps the frames still for
an extra 10 or 20 seconds creates a larger world rather than fleeting
snapshots. The understated performances are totally enthralling. Lily Gladstone
makes an excellent debut as Jaime. Look at how she expresses hope, despair,
shame, and agony. She takes the power of the restrained aesthetics to whole
new, affecting level.
Trailer
“Certain Women” (108 minutes) is a remarkable and ambiguous
study of gritty and gumptious individuals, cold-shouldered and unheard by the
alienated community. Since director Kelly Reichardt’s camera only watches and listens to the
existential threat faced by the characters without ever escalating the
dramatic quotient, it demands a contemplative mindset to watch.
★★★★
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