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One of the great joys of being a film critic occurs on those rare occasions when you're able to approach a movie with little prior information and no expectations, only to walk out of the theater two hours later pleasantly stunned and surprised. Such was the case with Jake Scott's exceptional "American Woman," a film that by its nature is destined to be overlooked by the movie-going public.
With a knowing script by Brad Ingelsby, the movie provides a telling and sincere slice of working-class life replete with its grand sorrows, bits of happiness, days of joy and minor setbacks, all seen through the story of one woman who's forced to find an inner strength she never knew she possessed.
Debra (Sienna Miller) is a woman in her early 30s who never grew up. Despite having her 17-year-old daughter Bridget (Sky Ferreira) living with her as well as her grandson Tyler, she still acts like a teenager herself, drinking, smoking, running around with a married man and not having a care for tomorrow.
This all changes one night when Bridget goes out and doesn't return, an event that radically changes her life as she finds herself having to raise her grandson on her own.
This is the start of an 11-year odyssey that sees Debra stumble, fall, get up again, repeating this process with the best of intentions regarding her grandson. She works hard, but in dead-end jobs that lead her nowhere; she takes up with Ray (Pat Healy) who dutifully pays her bills but has no problem smacking her around when she "steps out of line;" she fights and makes up repeatedly with her sister and brother-in-law (Christina Hendricks and Will Sasso) who live across the...