American Woman: NZIFF Review

American Woman: NZIFF Review

Sienna Miller excels in this portrait of life after grief from director Jake Scott.

Book-ending the film with two distinct portraits of the same character, Miller is Deb, a wild-child mum at 16, now a grandma at 38. With a laissez-faire attitude to both her own family (including a fraught relationship with mother and sister)and reputation, Deb's heading for destruction.

But when her daughter goes missing, Deb finds her world completely changed, as she becomes a sole carer to her grandchild and needs to re-evaluate, and start over again.

Essentially a portrait of grief, survival and coping, American Woman's strength in its familiar story comes from its lead actress, who burns up the screen with a powerhouse performance from the moment it begins.

Miller gives Deb a fiery heart at the start that allows you to support her through everything - from her sister (played admirably by Christina Hendricks) and her judgement through love to the abusive cheating men she aligns herself with.

"You make do with what's left" Deb says at one point early on, and that's equally true of what Miller delivers with Scott's material of flawed people and life's mistakes and bumps.

Scott delivers some time jumps that bleed into the screenplay with ease as years segue, and lives evolve; it's a fascinating technique that never disorients but cleverly ruffles perceptions and the usual dramatic cliches.

Ultimately, it's the honesty of American Woman, coupled with an awards-worthy performance from Miller, that wins you over - quiet moments deliver such gutpunches towards the end that you realise how invested you are in Deb's life.

It's a powerfully acted film that breathes life into a story and tropes we've all seen a million times before - and for that, it's one of the festival's most quiet and under-lauded triumphs.