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Jane Burgoyne, her daughter Katherine, and granddaughter Allison are packing up the last of Jane’s belongings before relocating her to an independent living facility—while Jane stalls the last hours of the move with memories, arguments, and justifications that reveal the relatable and recognizable stories of all three women.
As interactions with her daughter and granddaughter deepen, Jane—who...
As interactions with her daughter and granddaughter deepen, Jane—who...
Jane Burgoyne, her daughter Katherine, and granddaughter Allison are packing up the last of Jane’s belongings before relocating her to an independent living facility—while Jane stalls the last hours of the move with memories, arguments, and justifications that reveal the relatable and recognizable stories of all three women.
As interactions with her daughter and granddaughter deepen, Jane—who at first seems to be contentious, persnickety, even cold and malignant—emerges as an altogether more kind, compelling, and complicated person. Jane’s sympathetic and nuanced understanding of Allison’s anorexia and suicidality—a sweet, non-judgmental relationship that Allison treasures—is viewed with suspicion and even envy by her mother Katherine, since Katherine’s relationship with both her daughter and mother have been decidedly more difficult and adversarial. In this intensely distilled time of transition and dislocation, we witness intergenerational conflict and understanding, friction and unease, and in the process come to learn about Jane’s less-than-easy life: the tragic loss of a young daughter followed by a dark year of near-catatonic depression; a highly decorated teaching career in spite of an oppressive marriage to a controlling and manipulative husband; and her gritty perseverance as a single mother after her husband’s unexpected and untimely death.
Jane’s material life is dismantled around her, and she begins to move toward an independent, clear-eyed decision about what it is that she truly wants and desires, and what kind of person she might be when everything else is removed.
As interactions with her daughter and granddaughter deepen, Jane—who at first seems to be contentious, persnickety, even cold and malignant—emerges as an altogether more kind, compelling, and complicated person. Jane’s sympathetic and nuanced understanding of Allison’s anorexia and suicidality—a sweet, non-judgmental relationship that Allison treasures—is viewed with suspicion and even envy by her mother Katherine, since Katherine’s relationship with both her daughter and mother have been decidedly more difficult and adversarial. In this intensely distilled time of transition and dislocation, we witness intergenerational conflict and understanding, friction and unease, and in the process come to learn about Jane’s less-than-easy life: the tragic loss of a young daughter followed by a dark year of near-catatonic depression; a highly decorated teaching career in spite of an oppressive marriage to a controlling and manipulative husband; and her gritty perseverance as a single mother after her husband’s unexpected and untimely death.
Jane’s material life is dismantled around her, and she begins to move toward an independent, clear-eyed decision about what it is that she truly wants and desires, and what kind of person she might be when everything else is removed.