THE SCREENING ROOM
+ WHAT WOMEN WANT: Kristen Stewart as Beth, the lonely, crush-inspiring law graduate in the third of Certain Women’s three tales.
PARK CIRCUS/SONY; GCC/MITCHELL-INNES & NASH, NY
KELLY REICHARDT’S sixth feature, Certain Women, is set in Montana, but if you’re expecting Brad Pitt or Robert Redford to come riding by on soft-focus horseback, haloed by the sun, think again. The ilm is a triptych of tales about three women—a lawyer, an alienated mother and a ranch hand—whose paths loosely intersect in a remote town. The only Stetsons in sight adorn showroom dummies in a dusty store. The only talk of new frontiers comes from the crew of the Starship Enterprise on a flickering TV, watched at home by someone in bed in her socks. There is a moment when one character does give another a ride on a horse—a transcendent moment of connection in a ilm full of lonely souls—but then drops her of at her Prius in a dimly lit car lot. From Stagecoach to this: That’s a long trip.