Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Michal Chmielewski
Starring: Lena Gora, John Hawkes, Chris Hanley, Brian McGuire, Ed Mattiuzzi,
Crystal Rivers, Bear Badeaux
Polish filmmaker Michal Chmielewski's American set
Roving Woman takes its title from a song by
singer-songwriter Connie Converse. In 1974 Converse got in her car and
drove off, never to be seen again, and to date nobody knows her fate.
The film's anti-heroine, Sara (Lena Gora), similarly sets off
in a car, though in this case it's one she steals from outside a gas
station.
Sara is led to this drastic action when her boyfriend kicks her out
of his house. She spends the night ringing his doorbell before
eventually falling asleep on a discarded sofa on the street. The
following morning she finds herself standing beside a car, its motor
running and its keys in the ignition. In either the maddest or sanest
moment of her life, she drives it away. And drives. And drives.
Roving Woman is part of a long tradition of filmmakers
from outside the US displaying a curious obsession with the highways
and backroads of that country's dusty SouthWest region. It's no
surprise to see Wim Wenders listed as an executive producer.
With its relaxed storytelling and improvised feel, it has much in
common with Wenders' early road movies. But there's something very
modern about its protagonist. Played with coquettish charm by Gora,
she's essentially a manic pixie dream girl, the sort the male heroes
of indie rom-coms are always falling for.
Roving Woman suggests what might happen to a manic pixie
dream girl when her lover eventually decides he needs something more
stable. It asks what might happen if Betty Blue wasn't suicidal and
found herself dumped by Zorg?
The answer is a movie that often resembles the films of Korean auteur
Hong Sang-soo. Like many of his films, it features a woman who learns
a bit about herself through a series of interactions with various
characters. Here those interactions range from creepy encounters with
tattooed bros in desert bars and horny teenage skateboarders to
pleasant, life-affirming meetings with a newly-married redneck couple,
a quirky film producer and in what plays like a nicecore riff on
Psycho, a lonely young motel manager.
Much like Scarlet Johansson in
Under the Skin, Gora interacts with actual members of the unsuspecting public at
points, including one home-owner who confesses he considered shooting
her for driving onto his property. Lending star presence while mostly
off screen is John Hawkes as the stolen car's owner, whom Sara
begins to bond with as she listens to a CD of songs he composed for a
woman named "Mimi."
Chmielewski has little interest in traditional narrative. His heroine
doesn't so much drive from A to B as from A to K with a detour to C
and back to B as she tries to figure out where she's headed. In
reality a young woman as childlike and naïve as Sara would probably
meet a nasty end in this position, but Chmielewski gives America the
benefit of the doubt and largely shows its people at their most
positive. If you can trust the filmmaker at the wheel,
Roving Woman takes you on a charming journey through
that most cinematic corner of the US.
