‘In Transit’ review: Jennifer Ehle shines in Jaclyn Bethany’s melancholy chamber piece

Dir: Jaclyn Bethany. US. 2025. 82mins.

The relationship between artist and model is distinguished by shared confidences and growing intimacy during In Transit. Jaclyn Bethany’s melancholy chamber piece captures a fleeting encounter that subtly marks the lives of the two women involved. Strong performances from Jennifer Ehle and writer, co-producer and co-star Alex Sarrigeorgiou should help draw attention to a modest but effective tale that is realised with chilly precision.

In Transit has no place for sweeping melodrama or grand gestures

In Transit reunites Bethany with her Tell That To The Winter Sea (2024) producer C.C. Kellogg. This is another exploration of secrets and shifting sands, this time unfolding in sleepy, small-town Maine. The winter chill is established in beautiful shots of snowy forests, misty mornings, frozen lakes and coloured lights that beckon through the gloom. The whole area feels suspended in time and the same could be said of Lucy (Sarrigeorgiou), a young woman who works as a bartender at Slick’s Bar, an establishment that was partially built by her late father. Everything in her life seems settled and routine, from closing up the bar every weeknight at 9pm to helping one of the few regulars with his daily crossword. After work, she returns to a humdrum existence with her bland boyfriend Tom (Francois Arnaud), a chef who struggles to find worthwhile employment during the quiet winter months.

Things start to change with the news that Slick’s Bar is on the market to the right buyer and with the arrival of New York painter Ilse (Ehle) who is spending time in a friend’s apartment. Lonely and drifting, Ilse becomes a regular at Slick’s Bar, eventually summoning up the courage to ask Lucy if she might consider modelling for her.

Bethany sensitively examines what their sessions together mean for the women. Both of them are stuck in a rut or treading water. Ilse is trying to experiment and overcome the feeling that her work has become stale. Lucy discovers that she is more restless and unmoored than she might ever have considered. Bethany uses the camera to scrutinise the faces of the women, mirroring the way a painter might contemplate a model before committing a brushstroke to canvas. Both women feel truly seen through the eyes of the other.

Body language also conveys a great deal of what the women are experiencing. Initially awkward and reticent in the bar, Ilse starts to look more at ease in her own domain. The way she brightens in Lucy’s presence, or worships with her gaze, hints at feelings that are unspoken. Sarrigeorgiou’s Lucy plods through life, exuding mild disdain but now looks more confident. They discuss Flemish artist Clara Peeters, their private lives and hopes. Tom’s notion that he and Lucy might buy Slick’s Bar commit to a future seems much more his dream than hers.

The modest running time and focus on the two women lends In Transit the feel of a rigorous novella that Patricia Highsmith might have written. There may be hints of Celine Sciamma’s Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (2019), but In Transit has no place for sweeping melodrama or grand gestures. Here, it is the little conversations, the shrewd looks, affectionate glances and shifting emotions that serve to mark out their time together as significant. At one point, Ilse explains that she has reached an age when “you start to be aware of the mark your life is leaving.” In different ways, the observation could hold true for both women.