Katie Says Goodbye

It is very hard to believe people in life are this weak It is uncomfortable to watch someone be so pathetically lost Good acting performances

For this movie, set aside an hour and a half when you don't need something simple and happy. Watch it in a quiet moment when you feel a little contemplative as to how life might have turned out if you had gotten nothing but bad breaks. Remember that this sweet, helpless young girl is someone who would be demonized by a lot of people today. Remember that life sometimes goes wrong. Maybe she'll fix it, maybe she won't. But everyone with a shred of empathy is rooting for her by the end of this movie. It is beautifully told and beautifully acted.

Katie waitresses at a remote Arizona roadside diner and lives in a mobile home with her depressed mom, who spends the rent money on booze. Instead of being overwhelmed by these circumstances, Katie has set her sights on moving to San Francisco to become a beautician. In order to realize this dream, she supplements her meager wages by prostituting herself to local citizens and passing truckers - and keeps her savings from these encounters in a shoe-box under her bed.

Katie is cheerful and resilient to a degree which stretches credulity, but Olivia Cooke does extraordinary work to keep her believable. Meanwhile director Wayne Roberts extracts fine performances from the rest of his cast. Despite her engaging personality, Katie has made enemies as well as friends in town - and when she falls in love with a taciturn ex-jailbird mechanic and quits selling her body, they show their true colors. The script piles troubles onto Katie's shoulders as her altered lifestyle becomes the catalyst for anger, betrayals and dangerous hostility.

I'm all for a heart wrenching drama about someone who's down on their luck, but Katie Says Goodbye has 0 bright parts to it.

Katie, played beautifully by Olivia Cooke is an extremely naive waitress having sex on the side for money to fund an ambitious move to San Francisco.

She's a character that's too good for this terrible world, which is clearly what the writers are trying to portray. But they lay this notion on too thick, with one terrible circumstance after another and not a single moment to counterbalance this, the result? Katie as a character becomes one-note.

Like I said, this movie has a great performance by Olivia Cooke and is worth watching just for her.

I found it one of the hardest films to watch that I have ever seen. Olivia Cooke as always was sensational. Her performance as the wounded bird doing her best to be nice and upbeat as she gets by in a poverty stricken Arizona town feels so real. With her dead beat mum doing nothing but drag her down it hits so many heart strings. Their drab live in their trailer home was so believable and you begin to care so much for Katie due to the performance of Olivia that when people treat her so badly it becomes more heart breaking as it goes. Yes it is harsh but its real not everyone lives a good life and this show how hard it is to be poor in any country not just the states and the things people do to get by in a broken life. I was an extra on The Limehouse Golem with Olivia so I know how small she is and that added to my discomfort and the urge to want to give her a hug.