TORONTO – The filmmaking partnership of Scott McGehee and David Siegel has forged what can only be described as an unexpected path. After their 2001 breakout indie thriller “The Deep End” the duo found creative success in family dramas such as “Bee Season” and “What Maisie Knew.” Now, after an eight-year break following “Maise,” they return with “Montana Story,” a strangely thin melodrama held together by Haley Lu Richardson’s captivating performance.
A world premiere selection at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, “Montana Story” begins with twentysomething Cal (Owen Teague) returning to his family’s ranch where his father lies in a coma. A live-in nurse, Ace (Gilbert Owuor) is in charge of his at-home hospice care and the small homestead has been kept afloat by Valentina (Kimberly Guerrero), a caretaker who is clearly fearful of what will happen to the ranch once Cal’s father passes. We quickly learn that Cal’s mother died in a car accident a few years earlier and the responsibility of handling his father’s debts will be completely on his shoulders. Things take a turn when his sister Erin (Richardson) arrives.
Cal’s older sibling from a different mother, Erin left seven years prior following a physical altercation with their father. Neither Cal nor the family had heard from her since. That is except for Valentina, who has secretly been keeping tabs on her over the years. Still emotional over the beating her father gave her, Erin is anxiety-riddled over returning home and can’t bear to even look at him. She soon fixates her frustrations on Mr. T, a now 25-year-old horse both she and Cal grew up with. Cal has been persuaded to euthanize the old bronco, but Erin will hear nothing of it. She soon becomes determined to transport it back to her new home across the country in upstate New York. Even if that seems like a herculean task considering her circumstances.
With this particular project, McGehee and Siegel explore the ramifications of familial betrayal and, as is often the case, a lack of honest communication. The beautiful big sky of Montana, wonderfully captured by cinematographer Giles Nuttgens, is mostly just a foil for this grounded melodrama to play out. There are some references to the environment and a worsening economy, but it’s a “story” that could occur almost anywhere. Frustratingly, the pair, who co-wrote the screenplay, hinder the proceedings with long monologues of exposition that often suck the energy out of the film. Their efforts are sadly hindered by Teague’s performance, as the young actor seems a little out of his depth playing Cal. Unlike Richardson, he can’t naturally elevate the material when it needs him to. The opposite can be said of Owuor who somehow saves Ace from his shackles of an African immigrant giving sage advice in the middle of rural America (a modern cinematic cliché if there ever was one) or Asivak Koostachin, who gives Joey, a childhood Native American friend of both siblings, more life than what’s on the page.
Thankfully, it’s Richardson who keeps your attention. She makes you wonder how her character’s life has been derailed by a man she still felt the need to say goodbye to and whether her journey can eventually be a happy one. It’s a subtle and poignant performance that makes you eager for Richardson to have an even bigger spotlight in he next endeavor. [B-/C+]