“Montana Story,” the latest film from longtime co-directors Scott McGhee and David Siegel (“Suture,” “What Maisie Knew”), opens on chickens.
It’s an apt first note for this pastoral story, where everyday life acts as a backdrop for wrenching character backstories. The script is a touch too novelistic and the ending rather predictable, but pitch-perfect performances keep this melodrama from slipping too far into mawkishness.
The titular story is one of two estranged, 20-something siblings reunited over their comatose father. At first only Cal, played by Owen Teague (“It”), shows up to get everything in order. He struggles to pay their longtime housekeeper, Valentina (Kimberly Guerrero, “The Glorias”); to reconcile his father’s debts; and to re-home his beloved (but now ancient) childhood horse.