I had high expectations for this film based on the rottentomatoes score. But I always look at IMDB reviewers to balance the strangely biased professional critics, especially on indie movies.
Some reviews talked about this film being a good character study. I didn't really see much character to study. Plus you can't have a character study in absence of an actual plot.
I sat through this movie expecting it to go somewhere, but it never really does. You see many scenes repeated over and over again. I thought the dull, repetitiveness was just the setup for some big reveal or plot twist - nope. Nada.
Lots of scenes of driving on the road, I'm guessing part filler, and part time passage/transition device. It got repetitive as well and didn't really work, because there would be jarring jumps in time. It almost felt like the director had made a 3 hour movie, then chopped out so much stuff to get a 1 1/2 hour film that you lose your place in the chronology of events.
People randomly die, there didn't seem to be any plot purpose to it. And while you get the sense Diane's behaviour is to atone for some terrible life she led, the only real thing everyone seems to blame her for is a tryst that occurred 20 years earlier. EVERYONE in town brings it up, but we never hear about the aftermath, like what happened to the lover or her ex-husband. I was half hoping that the movie was moving towards a sinister reveal where she kept their bodies preserved in her attic, but alas, nothing of the sort happens.
This movie is full of so many false endings, or places you think the movie should have ended, that the actual ending, which is a huge jump in time, is laughable. It felt like the director ran out of boring repetitive scenes, and just decided to throw in a hammy ending.
Overall, this one, while a decent effort from a first time director, is not the praise-worthy piece of film that the professional critics would like you to believe.