Writer: Wayne Roberts (Screenplay)
Starring: Mireille Enos, Christopher Abbott, Olivia Cooke, Mary Steenburgen, Jim Belushi, Keir Gilchrist, Chris Lowell
Plot: A kind-hearted seventeen-year-old in the American Southwest turns to prostitution to fulfill her dream of a new life in San Francisco.
Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Heart-Breaking De-Construction of a Young Woman
Story: Katie Says Goodbye starts as we meet kind-hearted Katie (Cooke) who works as a waitress and prostitution on the side to get enough money to get out of the small trailer park see lives with her mother Tracey (Enos). Katie wants to move to San Francisco and after meeting Bruno (Abbott) a recently released prisoner, trying to keep his head down, who also doesn’t say much.
When Katie get exposed by Bruno, she must give up this life choice, hoping to make sure she can still leave, only to find herself in a relationship which doesn’t see her smile coming and her hope starting to come crashing down.
Thoughts on Katie Says Goodbye
Characters – Katie is a 17-year-old waitress that sleeps with the customers for some extra cash to help pay her family’s rent and chase her dream of escaping, she is an always positive person, that lets her kind nature guide her in the right direction. We see her start a relationship with a mysterious man, which sees her needing to give up the side ventures in hope that she can leave to follow her dream. In this time we see how the ever positive Katie sees her whole life come crashing down completely breaking this kind person. Tracey is Katie’s mother, she has given up most hope on herself, letting her daughter do most of the work for her, she admits she wasn’t a good mother and shows little love towards her own daughter. Bruno is the new man in town, working as a mechanic who takes the eye of Katie, the two do start dating with him being a man of little words, he does have a temper which can come to light at the wrong times and will see him getting to a level of dangerous without ever hurting Katie. Maybelle is the owner of the diner, she treats Katie like a daughter, always offering to be there for advice, never letting anything get in their friendship’s way.
Performances – Olivia Cooke gives one of the best performances of the year 2016, it is clear that not enough people saw this movie to be talking about her raw, performance that shows how her character gets complete deconstructed through the film. Mireille Enos and Mary Steenburgen both prove to be brilliant supporting stars, while Christopher Abbott proves to bring us an unsettling mysterious man needed in the film.
Story – The story follows the young woman that is still in her teenage years that dreams of a better life away from the small town where the dead end lives have taken its toll on the locals and she remains the last beckon of light in the town, until even her life comes crashing down around her. For the story here we get one of the biggest deconstruction of a character I have ever seen, she goes through so many different problems that completely take her life apart and it will show how the positive side of somebody can be broken without any fault of their own. Certain parts of the story do however feel slow and we do get too many scenes which are just the same as earlier which fill like they are just filling time to extend her pain.
Settings – The film is set in a small American town, it gets to reflect the life that Katie has grown up in and wants to escape, facing the reality here she can’t deal with, showing her positive nature to help her escape, the diner, trailer park and open space that nobody visits.
Scene of the Movie – Katie says goodbye.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It does repeat itself with certain scenes at times.
Final Thoughts – This is a brilliant look at how a person can have their life turned upside down and seeing it spiral out of control, with a special performance from Olivia Cooke.
Overall: Brilliant character study.
Rating