Katie Says Goodbye

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.