EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: 'Montana Story' Star Haley Lu Richardson Talks Siblings, Fights, and Forgiveness
Montana Story is a gripping tale of family, grudges, and forgiveness. However, the forgiveness is not where it is normally placed in films of this style.
Typically, the trope follows as such: two people get into an argument, at least one person does something terrible, one person ends up on their deathbed, and, miraculously, forgiveness is attained.
While Montana Story follows this trajectory, it makes a turn at this point of forgiveness: Rather than the resolution come with the abuser, it comes in between the siblings, both of whom are very much alive.
There is a different kind of courage that completely forgiving someone who has a staying power in your life holds. We got a chance to sit down and speak with one of the film's stars, Haley Lu Richardson, about this type of bravery.
Richardson reflected that Erin - despite what the normal trajectory of the trope would lead us to believe - may never reconcile with her father.
"I don't think that Erin does forgive her dad by the end of this movie, and I honestly don't know if she really ever will in her life, like really forgive him."
While she may not forgive her father, the heart in this movie still remains strong. Forgiveness takes courage, and that courage is abundantly present in the ebb and flow of the relationship between Erin and her brother Cal, played in this movie by Owen Teague.
"That kind of hope that you feel between the love really coming back between Cal and Erin...you get the sense that that is going to be enough for her."
In this way, Montana Story is not just a movie about families and forgiveness, but about honoring the love that has been meaningful to you during your life. While you are allowed to release some people and some things, regardless of what traditional tropes would suggest, it is important to be able to see through the fog and understand, underneath it all, who is really there for you.
Richardson also spoke to the importance of the rekindling relationship between herself and her brother.
"When you get to know a little more about her and her childhood before she ran away, that relationship was so important to both of them, that brother-sister bond, and how they worked through life together and they dealt with their dad together...and how they had each other; So I think that is more important to her than the love for her father although that's very traumatic."
The importance of siblings and the power of forgiveness are beautifully examined in this incredible film. Montana Story is running in theaters now.