Certain Women can boast being the first film I’ve seen at LFF that I wouldn’t recommend. It is so dull and slow and I couldn’t understand the point of it.
The film, directed by Kelly Reichardt, contains three stories of different women in Montana. First up we have lawyer Laura (Laura Dern) and her encounters with an odd client named Fuller (Jared Harris) whose inability to sue his company for negligence sends him over the edge. Second: Michelle Williams is building a home from scratch and goes and asks a old dude for some of his rocks and third is Jamie (Lily Gladstone) who is drawn to Beth (Kristen Stewart) who teaches an evening class on school law.
Does that plot sound exciting to you? Nah, me neither. To be honest, I didn’t know that much about it except it was in the Official Competition and it starred Stewart, who I love. Thank God she was in the third story, being as interesting and captivating as always, cos I may well have fallen asleep.
It actually started off really well – I loved Dern’s segment and it was bizarre, funny and pretty damn well entertaining. Then the film totally lost me on the second one – I had such a “who cares?!” reaction to the story. It was pointless, boring and I couldn’t invest in it or the characters. Things perked up in the third thanks to Stewart but it was still a “so what?” story. I’ve seen plenty of films without a real plot that I’ve enjoyed but I couldn’t connect to it in any way and it was so damn dry.
This has achieved critical acclaim throughout its film festival rounds and I just don’t understand that. It was a draining watch that really made me struggle to concentrate.
Seen as part of the 60th BFI London Film Festival. It doesn’t have a U.K. release date yet.
[…] so will watch anything with her in, for better (Clouds of Sils Maria) or worse (Certain Women, see review). Personal Shopper falls squarely between those. It’s okay, I liked it, but I don’t […]
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