Katie Says Goodbye

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.

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.

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.

This movie is a real life gritty drama. Katie (Olivia Cooke) and her Mother live in poverty and sell their bodies to make ends meet. Katie is saving up to move away from it all to California when she meets a man she falls in love with. Simple story but a very important one, I fear this is every day life for more young women than we realise. It's a movie not without some flaws but powerful and keeps you watching. Olivia Cooke shows us just how strongly talented she Is in this very tricky role. Just recently in my own life I've been faced with moving away to the other end of the world alone and starting life for myself and it's not an easy task. So there were parts to this movie I could relate to. Katie is more decent than the majority of people despite what she does to earn extra money, good morals and kindness, willing to take the blame for things she didn't do. 8/10

CJR

Im not really big fan of olivia but this was really played well by her. She had it bad but 'kept walking'.. very good drama