The first criticism, or just observstion, I could see leveled at Montana Story is that it's too slowly paced or that the directors (who made the sleeper The Deep End 20 years back, among a few other things) keep the characters holding back from saying what we expect them to maybe say - or hope they won't say - to rach other. But it may be simply that (most) American audiences don't always flow with dramas that have the confidence to take the time to lay out who everyone is, that there's sorrow and more with a little scratch off the card, and then when the time is right for the people, this brother and sister specifically played by Owen Teague and Hailey Lu Richardson, to lay out what's been eating them away for so long. And of course when dealing with bottled up guilt and pain and suffering, that can be a lot to handle.
The backdrop of mountain-y, sometimes barren and vast landscapes may also play into people thinking that it's a little too, let's atop using slow and just say "deliberately paced," but that's not even the case I think either. This isnt Bela Tarr we're dealing with, so maybe that will turn off those few who think this isnt Slow enough. This feels paced just so for this kind of particular drama, which doesn't come with any particular gimmick nor any operatic grandeur; maybe it lacks some sense of humor, on the other hand it could be hard to see where it would fit given the dynamics between brother, sister, the immigrant nurse and a couple of other supporting characters. It is familiar and not something especially new, there have been and I'm sure there will be again dramas about family coming together against their better judgment to a crisis point that unearths the skeletons.
Execution really is all and this is executed with care and attention to character motivations and depth. There are definitely types here and there, mostly that A. C. is the kindly Nairobi-African immigrant nurse who is caring for this dying husk of a human being and while it could've been more clichéd it is still there enough that it is a type. Luckily he's there just enough that the focus is more on Teague and Richardson. There's something else that I can't call exactly a complaint but it is something to observe which is at least for him the brother character gets a full monologue to explain the Incident that drove the family apart (not that from the sound of it it was the only time the dad was abusive, but the harshest time it seems), and I almost wanted to find the script online to save the monologue to give for future actors I know who would kill to use it in an acting class or audition.
So, that may sound again like a put down, as if the filmmakers make how they tall too obvious. It is very much a BIG dramatic monologue, given by a son to another character over a dad in a coma. But it actually is very affecting and several scenes once it gets into the final act pay off what's been building and boiling over between these two. At first, I thought Richardson was giving the stronger performance of the two, more for what she often isnt saying than is, but Teague as Cal surprised me in a performance that gets better and more pained as it goes on, though it never becomes so affected. These are two real people and the actors fill these roles totally believably.
In short, it's the kind of natural, melancholic but thoughtful piece of dramatic fiction filmmaking I'm a little surprised to see in a multiplex right next to Maverick booming occasionally against the walls. It's not great, but it's very good at being what it is.
The backdrop of mountain-y, sometimes barren and vast landscapes may also play into people thinking that it's a little too, let's atop using slow and just say "deliberately paced," but that's not even the case I think either. This isnt Bela Tarr we're dealing with, so maybe that will turn off those few who think this isnt Slow enough. This feels paced just so for this kind of particular drama, which doesn't come with any particular gimmick nor any operatic grandeur; maybe it lacks some sense of humor, on the other hand it could be hard to see where it would fit given the dynamics between brother, sister, the immigrant nurse and a couple of other supporting characters. It is familiar and not something especially new, there have been and I'm sure there will be again dramas about family coming together against their better judgment to a crisis point that unearths the skeletons.
Execution really is all and this is executed with care and attention to character motivations and depth. There are definitely types here and there, mostly that A. C. is the kindly Nairobi-African immigrant nurse who is caring for this dying husk of a human being and while it could've been more clichéd it is still there enough that it is a type. Luckily he's there just enough that the focus is more on Teague and Richardson. There's something else that I can't call exactly a complaint but it is something to observe which is at least for him the brother character gets a full monologue to explain the Incident that drove the family apart (not that from the sound of it it was the only time the dad was abusive, but the harshest time it seems), and I almost wanted to find the script online to save the monologue to give for future actors I know who would kill to use it in an acting class or audition.
So, that may sound again like a put down, as if the filmmakers make how they tall too obvious. It is very much a BIG dramatic monologue, given by a son to another character over a dad in a coma. But it actually is very affecting and several scenes once it gets into the final act pay off what's been building and boiling over between these two. At first, I thought Richardson was giving the stronger performance of the two, more for what she often isnt saying than is, but Teague as Cal surprised me in a performance that gets better and more pained as it goes on, though it never becomes so affected. These are two real people and the actors fill these roles totally believably.
In short, it's the kind of natural, melancholic but thoughtful piece of dramatic fiction filmmaking I'm a little surprised to see in a multiplex right next to Maverick booming occasionally against the walls. It's not great, but it's very good at being what it is.