Recuerdos de Montana

Watched it by myself. Enjoyed every bit of it. Very simple, but touching. It can happen anywhere in any family in life.

Sister and brother relationship. The nurse who has come from far away to serve the patient performing his duties calmly.

Between its sweeping wide shots of the landscape and its intimate look into family relationships riddled with trauma, "Montana Story" is a force to be reckoned with. A love story to Montana, a love story to family and all its complications - do yourself a favor and check it out!

Acting is ok but the story is not that new. In fact the story could be worse. But this low budget film is watchable and has it's good points (even though some dimwit did leave out plucking the chicken). Moving on... the characters are believable and and the inclusion of Native Americans is refreshing.

Great premise and wonderfully shot. The acting, however, I found stilted and wooden. I fully expected to ugly-cry throughout this story but I was unable to connect with the primary characters.

The supporting cast was strong and, again, the cinematography was fantastic. The script could have done with far less exposition and the primary backstory would have been better delivered through a series of flashbacks.

In other words, please don't tell me what happened unless the way you are going to tell me is better than the way you could show me. In this case Owen Teague's delivery fell quite flat.

Beautiful shots of big sky country and Asivak Koostachin was absolutely stellar.

I had two good reasons to want to see this movie. Back a few years ago we all spent the month of June on vacation in Montana, a beautiful state. And second I love Haley Lu Richardson, she is a really good actress and always a joy to watch. Here she is 25-yr-old Erin who disappeared seven years earlier after some bad family drama. Her half-brother is played by Owen Teague as 22-yr-old Cal (named after Cal Ripkin Jr.). Interestingly both actors were the same ages as their characters during filming.

So their dad, a high-powered lawyer and a tough, seemingly too tough, disciplinarian had a stroke and now is in hospice care, in a coma, barely being kept alive. Both moms are dead and the siblings come for what will likely be the last visit. We can see all the relationships are strained, watching we gradually learn all the things that transpired and led Erin to flee to upstate New York without telling any family members.

This is not a movie for fans of action movies, there is no action. It is a family drama and it plays out very authentically and very well. Of course cinematography takes ample advantage of the scenery, the mountains are grand.

At home on DVD from our public library, we enjoyed the movie.