Housekeeping

A small town in Idaho in the 1950s. After their mother's suicide two sisters are passed between relatives until their aunt Sylvie arrives. Sylvie has spent years on trains and roads. She does not know how to run a house, hoards newspapers, sits in the dark and leaves the door open in winter. One sister adjusts to it, the other is ashamed. The best thing the film does is refuse to make Sylvie either comic or pitiable. The distance between what the town calls normal and how she lives is what divides the sisters, and the film takes no side. Bill Forsyth adapted Marilynne Robinson's 1980 novel, and it became the Scottish director's first American feature. Christine Lahti plays Sylvie. It drew good reviews and did poorly in cinemas. The difficulty is that it is very slow, states condition rather than incident, and explains nothing at the end. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet, literary American film. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for narrative and resolution.