A Fine Movie About Lawyers

Well, not only lawyers. It’s about certain women and also certain men, but two of the central figures are women lawyers who will be hard to forget. The title is “Certain Women,” by auteur-style filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, who along with her somewhat old-fashioned way of making movies was recently the subject of a New York Times Magazine profile. This film’s portrayal of small town lawyering and to some extent lawyering everywhere is surprising and pitch perfect, as is the rest of the interlocking set of dramas it portrays, and it’s not even two hours long.