A ‘Refuge’ for Krysten Ritter

Amy Longsdorf

Getting up at the crack of dawn to feed the cows seemed like hard work for Krysten Ritter, who was raised on a 100-acre cattle farm in Northeastern Pennsylvania. But a decade or so later, as she was shooting “Refuge” in the blue-collar neighborhoods of the Hamptons, she flashed back to those days of long hours and endless chores.

Life on the farm gave the actress something to draw upon when she was playing Amy, a townie forced to give up on her dreams so she can raise her brain-damaged brother (Logan Huffman) and delinquent sister (Madeleine Martin).

“I think where I’m from is a big part of why I connected to the character as much as I did,” says the actress. “I’m from such a small town that I was able to [play the role] as if Amy were me.

“I thought, ‘What if I were still in that small town and my dreams weren’t able to be realized? How would that make me feel?’ ”

In the movie, which director Jessica Goldberg based on her off-Broadway play, Amy has a one-night stand with a shy drifter (“Flight’s” Brian Geraghty). Afterward, the pair of misfits surprise each other by taking the tentative steps toward romance.

“Amy is totally trapped and that’s such a dangerous place to be,” says Ritter, 32. “It’s sad and scary. But she chooses not to be a victim anymore and chooses love. And that’s her escape, her refuge.”

While Ritter is mostly known for her comic roles in “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” “She’s Out of My League” and TV’s “Don’t Trust the B--- In Apartment 23,” “Refuge” gave her the opportunity to dig deep.

“Just having proper scenes with another actor is rare these days,” she says. “You read so many scripts where you’re just there to drive the plot or deliver exposition.

“But this one was about what’s going on with these people emotionally. It was an amazing acting experience. It wasn’t about any glamour or hair and makeup. It wasn’t about landing jokes. It felt like a real luxury to do this movie.”

While Ritter has been working steadily for the last decade, 2014 might turn out to be her busiest yet.

Ritter reprised her role as Gia Goodman in the now-playing “Veronica Mars” movie and recently announced she’ll be headed back to TV to play the starring role in Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s ’60s-era NASA-set sitcom “Mission Control.”

Ritter will also pop up in a trio of 2014 comedies including “Listen Up Philip” with Jason Schwartzman and Elisabeth Moss; “Asthma” with Goran Visnjic; and “Search Party” with Alison Brie. Also coming from the actress is Tim Burton’s “Big Eyes,” a biopic about artists Walter and Margaret Keane (Christoph Waltz, Amy Adams).

“I’m such a positive person that I think every time is great but, yes, this is a particularly great time for me,” says Ritter, who is also known for her turn as a meth-addict on “Breaking Bad.” “I’m so grateful to have the job I have and I love all of it.

“I want to keep it going. It’s like when you’re at Disneyland and its time to get off the roller coaster, I decided to stay on. I want to keep going around and around.”

“Refuge,” which opens Friday and arrives on VOD on April 6, is the Ritter project which is, arguably, nearest and dearest to her heart. It’s no wonder she’s so fond of the film since it relies so heavily on the bond she shares with Geraghty, who is her boyfriend in real life.

When Ritter was signed on to “Refuge” back in 2012, she’d only been dating Geraghty for a month.

“We were skeptical at first about doing the movie together…because we didn’t know if it would be a total disaster or a great idea,” says Ritter. “But it ended up being one of the loveliest moments of my life because I got to spend time with him and make a great movie.”

Refuge Review

Lilting, solemn country-folk music plays over shots of dreary scenery and pensive faces. Since the lead actress is a TV darling (in this case, Breaking Bad's Krysten Ritter), expect the sex scenes to be muted and the participants to keep their undergarments on.

Film Review

Refuge flatly invokes the classic fantasy of a sensitive stud drifter who blows into a small town and reminds a bored housewife that the pleasures of sex and stable domestic courtliness needn't be mutually exclusive. It's an appealing daydream, because, like all sexual fantasies, it elides the work that's actually involved in achieving emotional or physical gratification for yourself or others. The problem with Refuge isn't the contrivance of its premise, it's that writer-director Jessica Goldberg doesn't know it's contrived, and so she attempts to drain this fantasy of its escapist elements so as to theoretically concentrate on its tangibly fearful, world-weary quotidian dimensions. But she doesn't find any, and so you're left with a film that's almost literally meaningless.