Housekeeping (1987)

Two orphaned sisters growing up in a small Northwest mountain town in the 1950s drift apart when the eccentric habits of their itinerant guardian aunt (Christine Lahti) push one to the shelter of social conformity and draw the other outside, to an uncertain but more exciting life apart. The film was sold as another of Bill Forsythe's whimsical comedies, but the humor is overshadowed by the lingering memory of loss and dissatisfaction: a grandfather's tragic death, a mother's lonely suicide, and so forth. Likewise there isn't anything funny about Aunt Sylvie's deeply rooted vagabond instincts (expressed, for once, as something more than merely charming or quaint), which attract the more introverted sister (narrating the details) as strongly as they repel the rest of the community. It's a haunting, almost melancholy film, carefully paced to the rhythms of small town life in hard times, and with a fascinating undercurrent (note the irony of the title) equating the freedom of the open road with the liberation of women from domestic dependency. The final image, after Sylvie has introduced her niece to a life of wanderlust, is enough to lure the hobo out of any viewer.

It featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I may not have recognised the stars names, but it doesn't matter, it sounded worth trying, from director Bill Forsyth (Gregory's Girl). Set in the 1950's, in the Pacific Northwest, after being abandoned by their mother, sisters Ruth (Sara Walker) and Lucille (Andrea Burchill) wind up living with their eccentric aunt Sylvie (Christine Lahti). They get on for quite a while, but eventually Lucille can't take the eccentric lifestyle much longer and moves out, but Ruth sticks with Sylvie, even after a flood spoils quite a bit. The relatives want Ruth to get the best out of life, and life with Sylvie might not be doing her any favours, so Sylvie retorts by wanting to live on the road again, taking Ruth with her. That's about all I could grasp I'll be honest, not that I didn't get it all. Also starring Anne Pitoniak as Aunt Lily, Barbara Reese as Aunt Nona, Bill Smillie as Sheriff, Wayne Robson as Principal, Margot Pinvidic as Helen and Georgie Collins as Grandmother. Walker and Burchill were pretty good as the sisters, but I think the key reason I would watch something like this again is because of the curious but charming scene-stealing performance by Lahti, I suppose it is a must-see book-based comedy drama. Very good!

The movie tells the story of two young girls whom their mom brought to her home town in the Pacific Northwest and committed suicide at the same day. The girls stay with their proper and respectable grandmother but after her death, their aunt, eccentric, literally out of this world Sylvie arrived after long time to take care of her nieces. There is a mystery behind Sylvie's smile, behind her strange for the most population of the small town behavior - she collects empty tin cans and used newspapers, she loves to walk alone and to visit train station and a nearby mountain lake. Christine Lahti is the center of the movie as a lonely gentle woman who has lived through many disappointments and failures it seems and learned how to choose what is really important for her and not to pay attention what anyone would think of her. It is easier to live this way but Sylvie will have to learn how to get closer, to connect, and to love again. As time passes, one of the girls, Lucille is embarrassed by her aunt and leaves the house to live a normal life. Her sister, Ruthie, a shy, quiet and insightful girl identifies with Sylvie's longing for freedom and chooses to stay with her. There are gentle kindness, quiet sadness, the spirit of freedom and adventure, unspoken words, bitter disappointments, failures, search for love, for understanding and belonging in this movie. Christine Lahti is great - watching her reminded me of two remarkable movies, "Running On Empty" where Lahti played one of the main characters, the mother and wife in the family that had to be on the run and the devastating and profoundly moving "Vagabond" by Agnes Varda, the tragic search for absolute freedom.

I wish this movie were available on DVD!!!Christine Lahti does her typically superlative job of depicting a woman whose values come from the heart rather than deriving from the dictates of western civilization. As always, she expresses the best of the free spirit which I believe can be found in any one of us.Two young sisters end up in the custody of their aunt Sylvie, who has spent her life having abandoned the trappings of western civilization in general and of consumerism in particular.In order to support her young nieces, Sylvie returns from the wild, so to speak, and helps to raise the girls in a manner which allows them to see the freedom of disassociation from society and its dictated "norms".