Certain Women (2016)

Deb, Jack, and I were not particularly moved by this dreamy tale of four northwestern American women whose three stories barely intersect. The pictures are pretty but the pace and drama were not what we needed on Wednesday afternoon November 9, 2016 (the movie was about to leave town--it's gone now), despite no shortage of talent. First we have Laura Dern (profiled in Wild) in one story, Michelle Williams (last blogged for Oz the Great and Powerful) in another, and Kristen Stewart (most recently in Café Society) with Lily Gladstone (new to me) in the third. Gladstone is terrific with few words and has been nominated for the Breakthrough Actor Gotham Award for this role. Jared Harris (covered in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows), in the Laura Dern story, plays the most flamboyant character and underlines how laid back the women are.

Acclaimed director/writer Kelley Reichardt (most recently made Meeks' Cutoff) adapted three short stories by Maile Meloy and, as mentioned earlier, the connections between them are tenuous at best. There are a couple of lines that stuck with me, though, one from Dern about sexism in her law career and another from Stewart about her family's expectations. Williams' character is also a bit of a trailblazer but her tightly wound Gina just annoyed me. Again, it could have been the emotions I was feeling that day. Reichardt and the movie have several more nominations and one win so far.

Composer Jeff Grace, who also scored Meek's Cutoff, provides nice tunes which are nowhere to be found online.

Two of my friends and many critics loved this movie, with Rotten Tomatoes' professional average coming in at 89%. Their audiences are more in line with us at 51. Maybe those who don't need to be cheered up will like it better than we did.