Montana Story Movie Review

[Ceasar Doyle]

Montana Story," about a brother and sister coming to terms with tragic family secrets during a road trip, is a throwback to an era of independent cinema in which an intimate story about people involved in situations that could actually happen could get seen on big screens in art house cinemas, a type of institution that was gradually disappearing at the time this review was published. The film is written and directed by the filmmaking team of Scott McGehee and David Siegel, who have made eight modestly-budgeted, acting- and directing-driven films during the past three decades, including the mind-bending thrillers "Suture" and "The Deep End" and the intense dramas "The Business of Strangers" and "Bee Season."

Modern audiences will become impatient with the quietness and meditative pace, and the writing is probably a little too schematic in certain ways. The familial dysfunction at the heart of the story as well as certain images and plot elements evoke 1960s rural melodramas like "Hud" and "The Last Picture Show," which were powerful but wore metaphors on their denim shirt-sleeves and would likely be written off as "old-fashioned" today. But the expansive widescreen images of Montana landscapes and the impeccable lead and supporting performances carry the picture, and it's generally a pleasure to see a film done in this mode at a time when so few filmmakers dare attempt it.

Owen Teague (of "Bloodline" and "The Stand") stars as Cal, a young man who returns to his family home to take charge of the estate of his dying father, who's been in a coma following a stroke. He's soon joined by his half-sister Erin (Haley Lu Richardson of "Ravenswood"), who's been estranged from the family for years following her rebellion against their father. Without giving too much away, suffice to say that the father's betrayals are in tune with a tradition that snakes through film noir and revisionist Westerns and plugs into the tradition of ancient Greek tragedy: the violence and sorrow that separated Erin from the family is directly related to the father's betrayal of legal, ethical, and moral codes, and all of this is folded into a more skeptical view of American history than is taught in most public schools.

There's a long, thoughtful sequence in which the siblings stare at a gaping and entirely pointless hole in the earth that their father's legal and business advice helped a mining corporation dig. Erin then schools her brother on the circles of Hell described in Dante's Inferno and relates them back to the history of their family and the state that's superficially and evasively defined to schoolchildren mainly through praise for its "big skies."

This is the sort of film that can generate low-key suspense over whether a battered pickup truck and horse trailer that Erin purchases from a transplanted Mohican named Mukki (a superb cameo by character actor Eugene Brave Rock) will work. The scene of Cal and Erin negotiating the purchase and performing routine repairs and taking the truck for a test drive takes up several minutes of the film, and amounts to a delicate short film about negotiation, with layers of class and racial distrust layered into the characters' interactions, as well as generosity of feeling and unexpected moments of connection.

It might be asking too much of viewers who are increasingly conditioned to relate only to big-budget intellectual property-driven fantasies packed with Easter eggs and teasers to sit still for a nearly two-hour, self-contained story about the emotional and economic problems of a rural Montana family. The movie is also less than perfect, and tends to err on the side of being modest and unassuming (even the breathtaking natural vistas are photographed in a matter-of-fact way). But there are many rewards to be found here, not the least of which is a skill at staging scenes with beginnings, middles, and ends that are entirely dependent upon the subtle interactions of a few actors who live or die on the basis of the words they've been given to speak, and the silences they've been encouraged to inhabit.

We certainly see how these invisible events, particularly the aftermath, has affected how he sees the world at an older age, after he has become a history teacher rather than follow his father in his law practice:

I brought up So Long, See You Tomorrow at the beginning of this review not only to show some similarities in narration but also because both books are quiet, introspective looks into the past. Also, like So Long, See You Tomorrow, Montana 1948 is a special book, a classic piece of American literature not because it is widely read (though it should be) but because it simply is in its depiction of a facet of American life and counterlife.

Then there is Zoe Moy, a student at the famed bohemian Summerhill school in England, in 1927. Greta Moy is a coder and a developer of a revolutionary dating app, in 2014, dealing with the mainly male-driven world of technology. Finally, the book centers on Dorothy Moy, whose portion of the story takes place in 2045. She is dealing with climate change, a failing relationship, her intense struggles with severe depression, and yearning for healing for herself and her young daughter Annabel.

The explanation of epigenetics was easy to understand and intrigued me enough to begin research of the topic on my own. Some cultures have long believed that the weight of the past travels through the generations and changes who we are. The study of epigenetics is starting to prove that this may be the case, leading to many revolutionary ways to treat illness, both physical and mental.

Adding another layer to this complex and moving novel, there is a person who searches for the love of their life consistently across time and place, from Afong in 1836, to Dorothy more than 200 years later. This element was a pleasant surprise and it kept the book from being too sorrowful. It helped to give me hope that eventually there would be a life of happiness and contentment for a descendant of the brave and inspirational Afong Moy.

The message the story brought to my mind, over and over throughout the book, is that we all have traumas and tragedies in our pasts. Our ancestors may have passed that down into our genetic makeup as well as our cultural or familial histories, but we must look to healing. If we can work on these generational traumas, not only may we live more enjoyable lives, but also, our future generations need not carry the negative weight into our collective futures.

Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: in...@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on Facebook and X.

Amanda Best has lived in Montana for more than 30 years and continually finds new things to love about this beautiful state. Camping and gardening are her warm weather hobbies, while knitting, board games, and quilting are her winter pursuits. She lives in a tiny house with my two precious dogs, two fluffy kitties, and one lighthearted husband.

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In the middle of the book, the first of the aforementioned murders is committed.The genre of the book is mystery/horror. I think anyone interested should read this amazing book and its sequels. One of the people who helps to stop the evil of the murders is a police officer.

Despite being a mystery/horror story, some parts of the book are hilarious. The book is suspenseful and mysterious. The book is also hard to put down once you start reading it. I would recommend this book for 4th grade and up.

Logan H. Wilson is a 10-year-old boy from Missoula, Montana. He loves reading, of course, and is rarely seen without a book. His favorite authors include J.K. Rowling, Tolkien, Brian Jacques, and Christopher Paolini. The Eragon books are one of his favorite series. In addition to reading, he is a serious rock hound who likes looking for crystals and collecting interesting rocks. He is also interested in art and chemistry. When he grows up, he wants to be an inorganic chemist who reviews books in his spare time.

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