Written and directed by Hilary Brougher.
Starring Talia Balsam, Scott Cohen, Andrus Nichols, Michael Oberholtzer, Naian Gonzalez Norvind and Violet Rea.
SYNOPSIS:
Lila and Edgar have daughters, responsibilities and an extended family of friends who rely on them. Conversations are communal, attitudes relaxed and drama low key. However this status quo is soon disrupted by the announcement of a new arrival, which only serves to open old wounds.
Hilary Brougher’s South Mountain is tranquil, introspective and uplifting; a feeling which sits in direct opposition to the subject matter. Fundamentally an ensemble piece concerning dysfunctional families, clandestine affairs and emotional upheaval no one raises their voice from start to finish. There is a laidback resignation to Talia Balsam’s Lila who anchors this family unit, acknowledges her husbands’ philandering past yet dotes on him anyway.
Extended family, teenage daughters and best friends all bicker, bond and reconcile around a central location, while the Catskill mountains bring their own sense of calm. In many ways this feels like a stage play where naturalistic dialogue, fluid staging and understated confrontations underplay moments of friction. Her husband Edgar played by Scott Cohen never feels malicious, scheming or stereotypical. His affair which is pivotal to the dramatic premise plays out through iPhones, kitchen table confabs and protracted silences. Once the break up happens subtle emotional ripples influence others as sides are taken and resentments voiced.
Retribution when it comes plays out through a series of scenes which illustrate Lila’s inner turmoil without confronting the root cause. Similarly, when physical solace is sought in the arms of a younger man played by Michael Oberholtzer, it is Lila who rebukes his need for recognition and retains control emotionally. Her relinquish power or identity is expressed in subtle glances, maternal gestures and engendered domesticity. Lila has always been the rock upon which they rely and in times of crisis it becomes her default setting.
Even at its most fraught Hilary Brougher never overplays her hand in terms of milking dramatic situations allowing them to remain unresolved. Tonally it shares a similar approach to Winter’s Bone or The Scent of Rain and Lightning in technique. Both Debra Granik and Blake Robbins made audiences feel like interlopers at a family gathering. There was a familiarity between these characters which went beyond screenplay structure and camera placement inherently grounding them in the now. Lila, Edgar and their extended family possess the same dynamic pushing South Mountain subtly into the realm of docu-drama.
That immediacy and grounded reality makes this an uncomfortable watch on occasions as characters never overreact, dominant unduly or over egg the pudding for affect. You feel that they are reacting to each other in the moment and Brougher’s camera just happens to be there. Drama ebbs and flows, crisis comes and goes while Lila endures without ever shedding a tear. It is a masterful performance stripped of gloss, bereft of obvious technical flourish and all the more harrowing because of it.