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Review

McTeer is a perfect combination of steely determination and awed enthusiasm as Lily Penleric, a respected musicologist who is once again passed over for a tenured position at her school (but, of course, she can continue teaching with no raise in salary). She leaves at the summer break to visit her sister, who has established a small school in the Appalachian Mountains. There, she discovers that the Scottish and English ballads she’s sung to her own piano accompaniment in her classroom have been sung in these mountains for hundreds of years with strong, unfamiliar vocalizations and accompanied by banjo, fiddle and guitar. Knowing that she’s made an important discovery, Lily is newly inspired in her work. She enlists the aid of her sister’s ward and a young handyman to assist her in traveling the area, recording and transcribing this music, which has been passed down aurally for generations. Lily’s involvement in the community opens up challenging and joyous possibilities in her own life; the harsh land holds unexpected, idiosyncratic beauty, yet suffers the same dangers and prejudices one can find anywhere. Songcatcher intertwines several related story elements: the preset limitations of Lily’s job, determined by her gender and not her expertise; the general prejudice against the mountain communities, making their exploitation that much easier; and the unreasoning hatred and fear which exists universally for those whose emotional commitments do not conform to the local mores. McTeer is ably supported by a wonderful cast, with special mention to Rossum as Deladis, the young assistant who takes on Lily’s objectives as her own; and Quinn as Tom Bledsoe, who plays devil’s advocate to Lily’s intrusion into his community, forcing her to reformulate a clearer understanding of her own intentions and purposes. Songcatcher is an unexpected pleasure; images of undulating forests underscored by heartrendingly pure vocalizations remain long after the film is over.