Diane
IFC Films
Reviewed by Tami Smith, Film Reviewer for Shockya
Grade: B+
Director: Kent Jones
Screenwriter: Kent Jones
Cast: Mary Kay Place, Jake Lacy, Deirdre O’Connell, Andrea Martin, Estelle Parsons
Phyllis Somerville, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Glynnis O’Connor, Joyce Van Patten,
Release Date: March 29, 2019

The subject matter of Diane is not exactly a cheerful one but an unfortunate fact of life: getting old, older and dying. In other words: the passage of time.

Diane (Mary Kay Place) is a widow who keeps busy taking care of her drug-addicted son Brian (Jake Lacy) by day, while recording her sins in a notebook at night. She also visits with her cousin Donna (Deirdre O’Connell), a hospital patient in the final stages of cancer; She and her best friend Bobbie (Andrea Martin) live in a small community in rural Massachusetts where everybody attends church on Sunday, winter snows are endless, and the soup kitchen is filled with the needy.

This theatrical film was written and directed in a skillful manner by Kent Jones, a documentarian. The main reason to see Diane is a powerful performance by Mary Kay Place as the title character, supported d by Jake Lacy as her angry and addicted son Brian, before he “finds god”, and the ever optimistic Andrea Martin as her best friend and companion till death comes.

Diane was photographed by Wyatt Garfield, in Kingston, Saugerties and Palenville, New York, showing endless snowy white and grey Massachusetts days turning into gray sunsets with a final shot of a red Cardinal symbolizing the hopeful coming of spring.

96 minutes. NR © Tami Smith, Film Reviewer

Story: B-
Acting: A
Technical: B
Overall: B+