Kristen Stewart and Michelle Williams will be staring together in upcoming drama, Certain Women, from American indie cinema director Kelly Reichardt. It’s the first time the two have starred alongside each other, but with a story that features only vaguely intersected characters, they don’t actually have much in the way of screen time together.
It’s Kelly Reichardt’s 9th movie since her critically acclaimed 1994 directorial debut, River Of Grass, which was nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. It’s her third film release starring Michelle Williams, who appeared in the lead role for 2008’s Wendy And Lucy, which won both the Best Picture and Best Actress awards at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards, as well as 2010 western, Meek’s Cutoff, which made it into the official selection for the Venice, Toronto, New York and Sundance Film Festivals.
Release date
The UK release date for Certain Women has been confirmed for Friday the 3rd March 2017, following on from its arrival in the US back in October 2016, and its premier at the Sundance Film Festival back in January 2016. It’ll be out in the UK on the same weekend as Wolverine trilogy closer, Logan, Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson crime drama, Trespass Against Us, and silly school comedy, Fist Fight.
Story
The plot centres on the lives of four women in the state if Montana as they all try to make the best of their situation and cope with their everyday trials, tribulations, hopes and dreams. Laura is a lawyer with a difficult client, Gina is a married mum trying to build a home, Beth is a law teacher who takes an 8-hour round trip to do the job and Jamie is a lonely rancher hoping for companionship.
Some of the intersecting stories are more linked than others as the complexities of their day-to-day lives spill over a little, making Certain Women a fascinating new direction in form for Kelly Reichardt.
Cast
Kristen Stewart (American Ultra) plays Beth and Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn) stars as Gina, with Laura Dern (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) playing Laura and Lily Gladstone playing Jamie. James LeGros (Point Break (2015)) plays Gina’s husband Ryan, Jarred Harris (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) plays Laura’s difficult client William Fuller and René Auberjonois (Star Trek Deep Space Nince) plays Albert, an elderly neighbour of Gina and Ryan.
Production
Kelly Reichardt has written and directed the film with Christopher Blauvelt director of photography, and music by Jeff Grace. Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino and Anish Savjani have produced the film. Distribution is by IFC Films and you can keep up to date on more of its indie cinema releases with its Twitter page.
Age rating
The film has been given an age rating in the UK of 12A by the British Board Of Film Classification with infrequent strong language and nudity.
First impressions
Indie cinema has undoubtedly benefited from the contribution of Kelly Reichardt and her latest film looks set to continue that trend. If you’re not into micro dramatic then Certain Women definitely isn’t one for you, but if you liked Paterson then you might want to put it on your watch list. Reviews have been largely favourable and the trailer is filled with credible weight and small moments of momentous importance to the characters, which is hard not to appreciate.
