Customer Reviews

The Hi-Line [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ron Judkins' directorial debut is a deceptively simple story of a naive Montana woman, Vera (Rachael Leigh Cook) who is told she is adopted. She is approached by a sleazy, but sad-eyed man named Sam (Ryan Alosio) who was given the ashes of her recently dead father and told to find his daughter. This is a character driven story, similar to films like "You Can Count on Me," where the screenplay doesn't focus on plot so much as how characters react to what is happening, and the plot follows. In the case of this film, it works nicely. Both Sam and Vera are complex characters in a love story that doesn't work on melodrama. When Vera discovers that she never knew her mother, she decides to go find her. And Sam decides reluctantly to go with her. Few films use such stark dialogue, with such sad undertones, but this is a quiet film. It uses dialogue only when the characters truly mean to talk. The cinematography by Wally Pfister is stunning, showing the hauntingly barren but mysteriously beautiful back drops of Montana. This is a very nice film that deserves viewing.

In New York, we tend to get arrogant about the 'country life', and I didn't expect to enjoy this film when my wife forced me to watch it --but something about the honesty of the story, the beauty of the filming, and the cool soundtrack won me over. The Hi-Line rocks whether you're from Brooklyn or Bozeman.

This film touched my heart. Beautifully photographed and beautifully portrayed by a fine cast led by Rachael Leigh Cook as a young woman yearning for something special to happen to her life. What would seem like a simple "chick flick" evolves into a sexy coming of age film that reminded me of "Splendor In The Grass".

The DVD extras fascinatingly reveal the making of this passion project that debuted at the Sundance film festival.

This is a delicate and subtle character-driven movie, which makes it a very good showcase for Rachel Leigh Cook. It's great to see her successfully explore a role with a wider and more complex range than Hollywood has allowed her. That's what indies are for, I suppose. It's beautifully shot, and has a tricky and understated plot. No car crashes or nude scenes, but a film well worth watching.

This is one of the best American independent films that I saw in 1999. I saw it at the Austin Film Festival where it won the Audience Award. Filmed in Montana along the old railroad rout known as The Hi-line, this movie's setting gives it a bleak and poetic ambience. The film's setting almost functions as a character itself. It walks the tightrope without falling into the sappiness that so many romances do. This film is an actor's script with outstanding performances by Rachel Lee Cooke, Ryan Alosio, Margot Kidder and Tantoo Cardinal. It's well worth owning.

I am way past 13 years old.....Like my love for my teenage son, there are reasons I love him as much for what he is not as for what he is. I love this movie for what it is not also. It is not violant, or physically explicit. It is not filled with verbally rude vocabulary. What it is, is completely enjoyable. I was compelled to be envolved in a caring manner with the choices the characters make. In a Robert Redford style of less is more. I am left with the knowledge that there are always choices.

Vera (the incredible Rachel leigh Cook) is two years out of high school, drifting in smalltown Montana, when oddball outsider Sam (Ryan Alosio) shows up on her doorstep promising a way out.

Winner of the audience award at the Austin Film Festival 1999, and a Sundance selection, Hi-Line takes off from familiar indie- ground and floats over a landscape both fresh and far-off, in the literal and psychological no-man's land between Montana and Canada known as "the hi-line."

Exquisite pacing and camera work draws the already lean and muscular storyline taut. Vera learns from Sam that she was adopted, and he agrees to take her on a roadtrip that will open her heart and his. Huddled together in subzero temps in his broken-down car, the poignance of their shared grief circumvents the obvious. This is a gentle, if searing tale, and when Vera finally tracks down her mother, Singing Bird (Tantoo Cardinal), their scene together wraps you up like a child, it is so visceral and honest.

Director Judkins savors the lapses of time between words, the dialogue is sparse and jagged like the lay of the land. Scenes drift away and together like snowbanks, in power, meaning and mass. I especially liked the relationship between Vera and Sam, which erupts slowly through layers of subtext... as they reach beyond each other to find themselves. Rare to find a romantic story held together with such grace and honesty. While the ending may for some feel overly nostalgic, say for the days of Billy Wilder and forties "women's films," it left this woman weeping.

A friendship/love story that is really nicely developed. I truly enjoyed the search for completeness and the discovery it enveloped. It has a gentle sway and flow that warms your heart and makes you remember...., and the thoughts linger long after you've finished watching it. Beautiful "pictures" accommpany the experience. I was touched by the sensitivity. I guess you can say I really liked The Hi-Line.

Undiscovered gem. Sure-handed, sophisticated direction by Ron Judkins in his feature film debut. A Sundance Film Festival competition selection. Here's how special that is-- nearly 1,000 films apply and a mere 16 are invited. Judkins is a two-time Academy Award winner for sound on JURASSIC PARK and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN; also Oscar nominated for SCHINDLER'S LIST. Hanging out with that kind of company, the dude obviously learned something about making movies. Beautiful cinematography by star-on-the-rise Wally Pfister (MEMENTO). The Hi-Line is independent filmmaking at it's best.

"Did you ever want something really bad but did not know what it is?" Simple lines such as these resonate throughout this forgotten gem as two lost souls, treading the circumstantial leads of a dead end find the wherewithal and courage to drive on, about a high way to no where. The dialogue, the atmosphere, the looming freeze of the ambiance, all display an existential stupor numbed by the desolation of a forsaken world. Writer and director Ron Judkins conducts a script with as much skill and delicacy of touch as the dialogue is absorbing and contemplative. The scenery of the empty winter landscape of a rural Montana is a suited setting that strikes a tune in consonance with the able orchestration of the characters and their emotional depths amidst the duldrums of a dearth of meaning. Rachael Leigh Cook is undeniably spectacular. Every lazy eye, every shy exertion of anger, every lush yet timid expression of desire has you riveted with awe. The naturalism of her artistry is cause for celebration. This independent movie sees her display the full gamut of her talent. Any fan of her art shoud not miss this movie, nowadays become a rare find even at Amazon. What accentuates and amplifies such a compelling acting yet more is the role of Ryan Alosio, who interprets a lost soul with rankled resignation with able strength and reserve. The two begin a search for a mother who had abandoned Cook's character to a family of loving everyday folks, who are the understated threshhold of this trip to nowhere. It is not so much what they find but what they seek that matters. Upon reading the letter written by the dead estranged father to the young lady Alosio has by force of responsibility become the dispatcher of, he spells the philosophy of a movie that is, to put it mildly, damn good: "I don't believe in the presence of an almighty God or the pot at the end of the rainbow, or that anything in particular makes sense. All I know is that what matters, what we have, is what we do for each other in this world." It's with this simplicity and excess of depth that the narratiive drives onward to no sunrise or redemptive horizon. The letter will end as the movie does, by outlining the words: "it's taken me a long time to understand this..."

And the desolation of the cold Montana landscape becomes an invitation to a ball where the two seem out of place in the middle of a dance floor, yet they are, sure, exactly where they need to be.

EXCEPTIONAL, EXCELLENT AND NOT TO BE MISSED.