Certain Women (2016)
“Certain Women” is a movie that follows the lives of three strong women: A lawyer named Laura, who is having an affair with a married man named Ryan. Gina who is the wife of Ryan, and finally Jamie who works in her ranch on an isolated farm. We see in this movie what each of these women go through in their everyday lives, and we also learn about their personal journeys. Each character has their own stories that can be truly related to life.
In the opening scene, the camera captures a train from distance moving slowly, honking its horn along the way. The opening scene of this movie was exactly like the opening scene in “Wendy and Lucy”. The first shots in both movies showed the trains. After that, the story opens with Laura while she is on her lunchtime affair with Ryan. The viewers see Laura in her bed naked, and Ryan changing in the other room. The camera captured both in two separaterooms. However, it was clear from the way they looked that they slept together. Then, Laura goes back to her office and finds her client Fuller waiting for her. Fuller won’t listen to Laura’s advice that he doesn’t have a disability case against his former employer. Fuller’s behavior indicated that he doesn’ttrust her judgement because she’s a female attorney. When Laura takes him to see a male attorney that tells him exactly what she’s been telling him, he listens this time. His facial expressions changed from not trusting to accepting the reality. Both characters don’t discuss where they’re heading, we see it all through action.
After learning about Laura’s professional and personal life, we transition to Gina’s story, Ryan’s wife. Even though the movie doesn’t present much of background information about Laura and Ryan’s secret affair, Gina and Ryan’s problems are never truly in the film either. Yet, it is clear from Gina and Ryan that they are distant from each other.The viewers first see Gina running in the woods.The camera shows her in the distance and as she gets closer, we see a different character of Wendy in “Wendy and Lucy”. In “Wendy and Lucy” you could see sadness as her expressions. Gina on the other hand seemed more confident and less nervous than Wendy. Gina and Ryan were camping with their daughter, and on their way home, they stopped at the house of an old man named Albert, from who they want to buy stones to build their dream house. In that scene, when Gina was talking to the guy, he seemed as if he wasn’t listening to her. And when Ryan talked to him, he quickly responded. Gina’s behavior and body language reflected how she felt about that. The camera instantly zoomed at her face showing her reaction of disbelief.
Finally, there’s the third story of a woman named Jamie who works at her ranch on an isolated farm. Jamie stumbles upon a class on school law taught by a woman named Beth. They go out to eat and become friends. Although the movie doesn’t tell us anything about Jami’s sexual orientation, it is clear from her behavior that she likes Beth more than just as a friend. Her facial expressions and emotions are well shown through camera work, and they clearly reflect sympathy.
All the characters in this movie were quite believable. Their acting skills, dialogs and the overall story kept the viewers interested until the end. Although the film lacked some background information, camera work showed details helping watchers understand the plot without words. I liked how the movie presented their characters, and how we weren’t told the details, but we were shown the details through camera work, it kept viewers guessing and anticipating what’s to come.
In the end, ”Certain women” focuses on the daily lives of those three women, and how they struggle with being women. Women are not being treated equally as men, and this movie shows how gender plays a big role in a society. I liked that in the beginning, the camera shows the lives of each of those characters, and then in the end the camera goes back to showing what happened to them. According to David Edelstein, “Certain Women turns out to be a study in women’s uncertainties, in the experience of pain that leads not to action but acceptance. It’s a slow go — but you get there.”
References
-https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4941-certain-women-trapped-under-the-big-sky
-http://www.indiewire.com/2016/10/kelly-reichardt-interview-certain-women-kristen-stewart-1201732899/
-http://www.vulture.com/2016/10/movie-review-certain-women.html
-http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/certain-womens-kelly-reichardt-interview-michelle-williams-laura-dern-kristen-stewart-lily-gladstone-a7615271.html
-https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4941-certain-women-trapped-under-the-big-sky
-http://www.indiewire.com/2016/10/kelly-reichardt-interview-certain-women-kristen-stewart-1201732899/
-http://www.vulture.com/2016/10/movie-review-certain-women.html
-http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/certain-womens-kelly-reichardt-interview-michelle-williams-laura-dern-kristen-stewart-lily-gladstone-a7615271.html