Montana Story Movie Storyline. A man lies dying. Felled by a massive stroke that reduced him to a mental vegetable, he breathes only because of the equipment attached to him. He is watched over day-and-night by a full-time nurse named Ace (Gilbert Owuor), who has come to this country from Kenya. His housekeeper, Valentina (Kimberly Guerrero), comes regularly to do her duties.
Everything is in a state of limbo when two adult children come home for a last visit with their father, whose state is such that he will never know they are there. But this isn’t the case of a loving son and daughter paying their final respects. Cal (Owen Teague) shows ambivalence toward the dying man.
Erin (Haley Lu Richardson), who arrives unexpectedly after traveling from her home in upstate New York, is cold and brittle. She has come for reasons she doesn’t fully understand, possibly to gloat at this example of karma or to seek closure for the event that drove her out of Montana and caused her to cut off communication with her brother and father.
From Suture and The Deep End through Bee Season, Uncertainty and What Maisie Knew, Scott McGehee and David Siegel have charted a unique path in American cinema. Fluent in the experimental outer reaches of film, they have also explored more approachable storytelling, acting almost as doppelgänger figures within their own body of work. For those who choose to see it, though, there is a consistency in McGehee-Siegel films — a confidence in the strength of human character that pairs well with a parallel skepticism in how we perceive one another.
In Montana Story, Owen Teague plays Cal Thorne, a young man drawn back to the family ranch to be with his ailing father, Wade. A migrant nurse, Ace (Gilbert Owuor), has been hired to care for the old man, and longtime employee Valentina (Kimberly Guerrero) tries to help manage the sprawling property. But Wade has dug his family a deep debt to the bank, and Cal is ill-prepared to take the reins. His answer to what to do with their horses infuriates his sister Erin (Haley Lu Richardson) when she arrives from back east. The stage is set for an eternal conflict that pushes Cal and Erin to see each other truly.
Richardson, last seen playing the effervescent server in Support the Girls, is utterly transformed here as a prairie girl turned East Coast intellectual. She is sharp, pragmatic, erudite, and impulsive, a woman of layers. Both she and Cal carry wounds from childhood that drove them from home. Now, with their father dying, they have no choice but to confront together what home now means to them.
McGehee and Siegel unfold the grand themes of their film in a natural, unforced way. There are shades of America’s great mid-century dramatists here, and of ‘70s reckonings such as Five Easy Pieces. And Giles Nuttgens’ gorgeous 35mm cinematography gives this story, and Montana’s sweeping landscapes, the scale it deserves.
Montana Story is a 2021 American drama film written and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel. The film stars Haley Lu Richardson, Owen Teague, Kimberly Guerrero, Gilbert Owuor, Asivak Koostachin, Eugene Brave Rock, Kate Britton and John Ludin. It was released in the United States on May 13, 2022 by Bleecker Street.
Montana Story (2022)
Directed by: Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Starring: Haley Lu Richardson, Owen Teague, Kimberly Guerrero, Gilbert Owuor, Asivak Koostachin, Eugene Brave Rock, Kate Britton, John Ludin
Screenplay by: David Siegel, Scott McGehee,
Production Design by: Kelly McGehee
Cinematography by: Giles Nuttgens
Film Editing by: Isaac Hagy
Costume Design by: Catherine George
Set Decoration by: Anna Kathleen
Art Direction by: Shiloh Kidd
Music by: Kevin Morby
MPAA Rating: R for language.
Distributed by: Bleecker Street (United States), Stage 6 Films (International)
Release Date: September 12, 2021 (TIFF), May 13, 2022 (United States)
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