THERE BE SPOILERS HERE!!!!
This movie was one of those "stranger comes to town and everyone, including the stranger, is changed somehow when the movie ends." Not as visually arresting as "Local Hero" and more subtle in the transformations, but Nevada is something like that movie. And that is why I really liked it, especially the more I thought about it afterwards. For example, I didn't 'get' for most of the movie why Chrysty was so focused at moments on the flow of running water over her; aside from some kind of spiritual cleansing, I got at the end that those scenes were metaphors for the action of the men damming a river in order to change what was already perfection in nature, and women's images/actions of 'flowing-ness', biologically as well as symbolically. I liked that even Chrysty's children accepted the change in their lives and their mother,even if her husband really needed to go rent "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" & watch it 10 times. I really liked how Chrysty was insistent that her children were NOT abandoned if there father was with them, which eventually the townswomen realized is true. I want to make one point about Kirsty Alley's performance, which I've seen slammed here: there's not much an actor can do with a character who is as one-dimensional as McGill, which is how she was written. A loss as soul-searing as McGill experienced limits perspective on everything else in life. And I am not a Kirsty Alley fan but I do give her credit for a thankless role.
This movie was one of those "stranger comes to town and everyone, including the stranger, is changed somehow when the movie ends." Not as visually arresting as "Local Hero" and more subtle in the transformations, but Nevada is something like that movie. And that is why I really liked it, especially the more I thought about it afterwards. For example, I didn't 'get' for most of the movie why Chrysty was so focused at moments on the flow of running water over her; aside from some kind of spiritual cleansing, I got at the end that those scenes were metaphors for the action of the men damming a river in order to change what was already perfection in nature, and women's images/actions of 'flowing-ness', biologically as well as symbolically. I liked that even Chrysty's children accepted the change in their lives and their mother,even if her husband really needed to go rent "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" & watch it 10 times. I really liked how Chrysty was insistent that her children were NOT abandoned if there father was with them, which eventually the townswomen realized is true. I want to make one point about Kirsty Alley's performance, which I've seen slammed here: there's not much an actor can do with a character who is as one-dimensional as McGill, which is how she was written. A loss as soul-searing as McGill experienced limits perspective on everything else in life. And I am not a Kirsty Alley fan but I do give her credit for a thankless role.