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| Scott McGehee |
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| David Siegel |
MONTANA STORY B USA (114 mi) 2021 ‘Scope d: Scott McGehee and David Siegel
Your father is a man whose past is complete now. Nothing will be added to his story. He is the sum of his days. —Ace (Gilbert Owuor)
Nestled between two mountain ranges, the film was shot during the heart of the pandemic in the panoramic expanse of Paradise Valley in Montana, about as far away from Covid lockdowns as possible, featuring breathtaking scenery, made by filmmaking partners Scott McGehee and David Seigel after a nine year break from directing, written along with Mike Spreter, weaving a heartbreaking yet intimate story about toxic masculinity and family secrets, something of a lighter version of Jane Campion’s epic historical western 2021 #1 Film of the Year The Power of the Dog, perhaps more representative of tender westerns like Andrew Haigh’s Lean On Pete (2017) and Chloé Zhao’s 2018 Top Ten Film List #1 The Rider (2017). While there are long, quiet stretches that simply linger on the majestic grandeur of the landscape, this revisionist account is a little too pat in terms of accentuating a political correctness, making sure Indians and blacks are well represented onscreen, something noticeably missing in western annals, so this is playing to an idealized point of view that may not actually exist in reality. The sheer magnificence of the setting, however, is beautifully captured on 35mm by cinematographer Giles Nuttgens, the man behind the camera in David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water (2016), yet there’s also a surprising claustrophobia to much of this, as Wade (Rob Story), the patriarchal rancher at the center of the family narrative, has suffered a stroke and fallen into a permanent coma with no recovery likely, existing on life support, yet his dying presence sprawled out in the ground-floor study, his face hidden by an oxygen mask, generates what little action there is, still a ghostly force to be reckoned with, as his life comes into play through revelations from other characters without ever resorting to flashbacks. His son Cal, Owen Teague, who also makes an appearance in the Michael Morris film To Leslie (2022), takes it upon himself to set his father’s affairs in order, carrying a heavy burden, assisted by a round-the-clock live-in nurse known as Ace (Gilbert Owuor), a conveniently shortened nickname for a Kenyan immigrant whose name is too difficult to pronounce, and the family’s long-time Indian housekeeper Valentina (Kimberly Guerrero). The sudden, unexpected arrival of Cal’s older sister Erin (Haley Lu Richardson), who dropped out of sight 7 years ago and has been incommunicado ever since, changes the entire rhythm of the film, as she’s blunt, emotionally agitated, and a bit flustered, immediately regretting her decision to be there, as she runs in, realizes the extent of her father’s incapacity, and runs out again in this whirlwind appearance of now you see me, now you don’t. What changes her mind is a 25-year old horse in the barn named Mr. T, with both siblings still retaining a strong emotional attachment, yet Cal has arranged for the horse to be “put down,” which really aggravates Erin, finding this completely disturbing, and can’t rest at the thought of it, coming up with a harebrained scheme to take Mr. T back to New York with her, pointing out that she lives in Hudson Valley in “upstate” New York, as if that makes all the difference. Early on the film feels rushed and forced, cramming expository information to familiarize viewers with the storyline, but once Erin changes her mind on an abrupt departure and decides to stay, the pace of the film slows, finally allowing the characters to breathe and the gravity of the overall landscape to be felt.
In this slow-paced, character-driven film, which takes its time in patiently rolling out the nature of the underlying dynamic, we learn that Erin’s mother Libby died during childbirth, while Cal’s mother Connie perished in a car crash two years ago, but as children the two siblings were inseparable. The secondary characters are all people of color, and while that might seem improbable, the Indian presence in Montana has been a fixture for centuries, long before the Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the size of America, and Lewis and Clark made their expedition west on their way to the sea, with 7 Indian reservations or tribal territories currently spread throughout the state, with an additional 35% of the Indian population residing in communities outside these areas. Valentina’s cheerful son Joey (Asivak Koostachin) is a childhood friend of the family, and a welcome presence, while they later venture onto tribal lands in their own strange misadventure. The land surrounding the property is so vast that no other neighbors can be seen, instead a magnificent vista of the nearby mountains offers a spectacular view, yet there is no thought to saving the ranch, as medical expenditures have evaporated their father’s wealth, now in the grips of bankruptcy, where they are required to sell off any remaining assets just to cover the expenses. Cal is dumbstruck by his sister’s return, having previously lost all contact with her, only to discover Valentina has been secretly staying in touch, having given her promise not to tell anyone, leaving an emotional riff, as Cal feels blindsided, MONTANA STORY | One More Time | Bleecker Street YouTube (1:12). We also learn of their father’s horrific abuse, where the fear he once commanded is a striking contrast to his current shrunken and pathetic state, with both children still reeling from the emotional damage he inflicted upon each of them, as the truth is slowly revealed in increments, playing out in real time, not really knowing anything in advance, partially told in a quiet soliloquy by Cal to Ace while watching over the lifeless form of his father, suggesting he needs to know about the man he’s caring for, still at a loss to feel any attachment to this man. But the biggest surprise may be Haley Lu Richardson, usually heartwarming and bubbly, with such a pronounced presence in Kogonada’s 2017 Top Ten List #5 Columbus and After Yang (2021), yet here she’s a much darker character, cold and abrupt, to the point of being aloof and harshly disrespectful, where you wonder if she’s inherited some of her father’s traits. Wade was a high-powered attorney pretending to be a cowboy, protecting the interests of the mining industry in covering up their toxic pollution, dispensing an Old Testament-style wrath on Erin as a teenager after learning she wrote an article in her school paper exposing the corruption of the industry, nearly beating her to death in a deplorable assault of child abuse, and later killed her horse out of spite, witnessed by a terrified 15-year old Cal, an incident that left both traumatized, with Erin running away from home afterwards, where certainly one overriding theme is that it takes plenty of time for festering wounds to even begin to heal.
After a search on Craigslist, Erin heads to the Blackfeet Reservation along with Cal to purchase a used truck and trailer to haul Mr. T to New York, where they meet with the very congenial Mukki (Eugene Brave Rock), immediately exhibiting a slower pace of life, without the stress of all the medical issues, as he grows curious why a Montana horse would head to New York. He finds this ironic as he’s a transplanted New York Mohican Indian whose people fled first to the midwest and then Montana to avoid recurring incidents of violence associated with western expansion, yet his relaxed demeanor suggests he’s happily found a home. The beat-up truck he’s selling, on the other hand, has issues that he’s quickly forced to fix, but she’s able to drive it away, only to break down along the highway on the road back to the ranch. As they wait for roadside assistance, they take a side trip to an expansive open-pit copper mine, now covered by a toxic lake over a mile long filled with heavy metals from old underground mine shafts, a man-made catastrophe responsible for killing thousands of birds and other wildlife from the sulphuric acids they used, which eventually forced them to shut down, a looming eyesore on the endless landscape in the middle of nowhere, sarcastically described by Erin as “Just another crime scene out in the ol’ West,” before eerily comparing it to the nine circles of Hell in Dante’s Inferno, where the lowest circle is reserved for “betrayers of special relationships.” While the quietly restrained music by Kevin Morby fits the typical indie fare, overall the choice of musical selections disappoints, not nearly as inspiring as Max Walker-Silverman’s 2022 Top Ten List #8 A Love Song, for instance, though it does include a classic country song like Emmylou Harris & Willie Nelson - One Paper Kid - YouTube (3:00). Joey arrives in his tow truck, happily helping out Erin, as it appears he has a soft spot for her. We learn that Cal has made a life for himself in Cheyenne as a civil engineer, as he enjoys shaping the urban landscape, while Erin works as a trained farm-to-table cook in a restaurant that uses every part of the animal, from head to tail. She decides to put her talents to use that night by cooking a gourmet chicken dinner, making a beeline to the hen house to pick out a prize chicken and slaughtering it right there in the yard, much to Cal’s surprise, though her decisive behavior lends a moment of levity, as she’s so thoroughly purposeful, revealing a side of Haley Lu Richardson we just haven’t seen. They sit down with Ace for an elegant dinner together, coming near the holidays, adding wine for a festive occasion, their spirits apparently revived, actually feeling like a family again. But a dramatic storm ensues, cutting off all power, jeopardizing the life support system, with their father suffering a heart attack, requiring emergency treatment from Ace, who enlists Erin to help with the manual breathing device, which clearly leaves her devastated, as she can’t imagine “helping” this man, with Cal running out into the barn to search for an emergency generator, with the power restored by the time he returns, but Erin is overcome with emotions, as the sins of the past force their way back into the present, becoming a punishing day of reckoning, each still carrying their own nightmarish recollections. As the storm subsides, however, a new era opens up, and with it comes its own dark mysteries as their father passes in the night, perhaps a blessing in disguise, as the pain he caused had reached a breaking point, needing a pressure valve for release, suggesting generational change can never occur until the old ways are dispelled, offering a poignant commentary on how the imprint of violence and generational trauma are left not just on people and families, but an entire region. Yet the enduring brilliance of this poetically understated film is not just some reconciled family resolution, but a deeper underlying connection that returns Mr. T to his rightful homeland, seen once again running free with a herd of other horses as Joey and Mukki gladly watch it all unravel in a beautifully realized sequence on tribal lands.
