Montana Story

Cal comes back to his father's ranch. The man has had a stroke, cannot speak and is dying; the house will be sold, the debts paid and the animals disposed of. As Cal is trying to settle things alone, his sister Erin appears after seven years. There is something unspoken between them, and she has not come for that; she has come for an old horse. Scott McGehee and David Siegel direct. Owen Teague plays Cal and Haley Lu Richardson plays Erin. The method is to delay. Why the two have not spoken for years is withheld for a long time, and the narrative carries it not as a surprise but as something that cannot be said. The landscape is part of the narrative. Montana is wide, empty and indifferent; the camera keeps the people small inside a large expanse, which is the same thing as the distance between them. The place given to the horse is practical rather than symbolic. What happens to the animal is the knot of the whole narrative and the emotional weight attaches there. That the father never speaks is the film's best choice; he cannot defend himself, and the characters have to settle with each other rather than with him. Gilbert Owuor plays the carer in support and functions as a view from outside. Who it is for: viewers who like calm American independent drama and stories about siblings. Who it is not for: the pace is very slow, little happens, and the ending does not deliver the big scene it is expected to.