Kelly Reichardt makes minimal, contemplative character studies about women in modest conditions. They exist in the world and respond to their environment. In “Wendy and Lucy” Reichardt told the story of a homeless woman and her bond with her missing dog. In “Meek’s Cutoff,” she took the romance out of the Oregon Trail. And in her latest “Certain Women,” she examines three stories of women who don’t get the respect for the hard work they do.
But if there’s one commonality between all three films, it’s that they are horribly boring. They’re studious, academic movies made to be interpreted in the gaps between the words left unsaid, and there are a lot of them. And like the nature in this small Montana town, its actual story and depth are bone dry and desolate.
Laura, Gina and Beth all live in a small town called Livingston and share very loosely connected narratives. Laura (Laura Dern) has a law office and a particularly troublesome client named Fuller (Jared Harris). His life was ruined due to a construction accident but who accepted a settlement and waived his right to sue. For eight months Laura has been trying to explain why she can’t help him, and in a visit with one male lawyer, all her work is undone. He’s a potential danger to himself and others, and she has to balance her own frustration with her empathy for him.
Gina (Michelle Williams) has plans to build a house in an empty lot, and she wants to buy some sandstone from an old man who lives alone and seems not to understand the transaction. Her husband doesn’t respect her taking the reins, and her teenager doesn’t respect her for just about anything. She wants a “natural” home, but we’re introduced to her sneaking a smoke break and burying her cigarette butt in a trail on her morning run.
Finally is Beth (Kristen Stewart), a law student who accepts a job as a teacher four hours away from Livingston. It’s a night class with other local teachers only interested in whether the law entitles them to a parking space. A young woman named Jamie (Lily Gladstone) wanders into her class away from her work alone on a ranch tending horses, and Jamie starts to grow fond of Beth. And whether it’s teaching law or shoveling hay, neither woman gets the credit they deserve.
These stories have no glamour, no sensationalism, but they feel like the real challenges of ordinary women. And yet it’s hard to find the drama here. Reichardt’s long takes of individual close ups, many of them while the women drive, are dull examples of the need to simply study the lines on their faces, a suggestion of their composure as we wait for them to emote much of anything.
In exchange of any sort of action are brief moments of levity that perhaps give glimpses into their deeper personality. Laura shows her Christian side when she says one of her clients told her to “consume feces” rather than “eat shit.” Jamie has a cute sheep dog that loves chasing her ATV. And Michelle barely flinches when her husband tries to do a silly voice for her amusement.
A movie like the recent “American Honey” has an equally formless narrative as well as examinations of young women in Middle America, but it celebrates as much as it probes. It has dynamic filmmaking that sees the nature of the world through the eyes of its protagonist rather than from a distant observer. “Certain Women” may have a point, but it’s only there for people looking to place a lot of meaning on these empty faces.
2 ½ stars