The thing that makes Deidra & Laney Rob a Train, one of Netflix’s recent Sundance Film Festival acquisitions, so powerful, is that the family at the center of the film — the Tanners — could easily be replaced by any other American family struggling to get by. A single mother, two daughters — one, a soon-to-be valedictorian, the other, a shy but strong-minded teenager struggling to find her self-confidence — and their younger brother. This could be any family. But it isn’t.
When their mother, Marigold (Danielle Nicolet) has a violent mental breakdown that endangers bystanders, she is sent to jail, turning her children’s lives upside down. Deidra (Ashleigh Murray), Laney (Rachel Crow) and Jet (Lance Gray) are forced to fend for themselves, causing Deidra to step into a parental role for her two younger siblings.
Prior to her mother’s incarceration, Deidra had been making money using her intellect, giving her fellow students answers for their homework. But after her mother’s incarceration, she turns to robbing trains and selling the loot to make the bail money.
Deidra & Laney boasts great performances from two up-and-comers, Crow and Murray, who capture the audience with their spot-on portrayals of teenagers struggling to be more than their upbringing.
Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) also delivers a standout performance as Truman, the railway investigator who is looking into the train robberies. While Nelson’s character is essentially a caricature of a cartoon villain, he still delivers the performance with poise.
While the acting is superb, the film’s plot falls short of greatness because of its over-romanticization of a lot of the themes it addresses.
The film romanticizes many of the hardships the family faces, most notably their struggle with poverty. This is made evident by the colorful posters and cut-outs that they have to lay out their budget.
Deidra & Laney also romanticizes the mental breakdown that Marigold has outside of the electronics store, treating it as a moment of comedic relief rather than an example of an issue many people are affected by.
There is also a scene with Marigold in jail where she talks about all the things that she gets to do in jail that she didn’t get to do when she had to care for her family like “choose between laundry and kitchen [duty]” and eat “salad with every single meal.” This interaction romanticizes the prison system as it exists today, making it seem like a better alternative to caring for one’s family.
The very nature of robbing trains is also romanticized through the joy that Deidra and Laney get from doing it. Their relationship is strengthened by the fact that they are doing this thing together, even though the thing they’re doing happens to be illegal.
Despite its tendency for over-romanticization, Deidra & Laney shows a glimpse of what could be, and is, a very real situation for a lot of families faced with poverty.
Deidra & Laney is a family-friendly film with a deeper meaning behind it, and while it doesn’t always portray things 100 percent accurately, it is still a meaningful film.
