For When You Get Lost is part healing journey (AKA a road trip), part family relationships, and part finally growing up at age 40. This low budget indie was written and directed by women. It’s beautifully shot and features excellent actors.

For When You Get Lost begins with June (Jennifer Sorenson) realizing her father (Mark L. Taylor) is seriously ill and deciding to make the drive to Whidbey Island in Washington state from her home in California to say goodbye. Actually, she’s hoping he will apologize to her for the way he treated her as a child.

June is 40 and a mess. She drinks too much, she has lots of random sex, she’s irresponsible, and she worries that she’ll turn out like her mother. Her mother was an alcoholic who committed suicide when June was a child.

That left June to care for her younger sister. Her sister hasn’t spoken to her in 8 years. Cami (Elizabeth Alderfer) has two kids and a very different life from June. She’s angry at June for the way June treated her as a child. But Cami’s house is on the way to Washington. June stops there. She convinces Cami to go along on the drive to see their father.

Cami sits in the back seat, doesn’t want to talk, and spends her time studying for her real estate exam. She is broke and needs a job that will save her home and family.

They drive up the coast, not using the freeway. The drive is stunning and beautiful, as you know if you’ve ever driven up the Pacific coastline yourself. June wants to stop at every brewery along the way, visit the redwood trees, and sit on the beach. Cami is not up for such nonsense.

The title of the movie comes from June’s insistence on using paper maps to find her way up the coast. Her father put paper maps in her glove compartment with ‘for when you get lost’ on a sticky note attached to the maps. Where that sticky note winds up in the end is a fitting symbol of June’s growth in the film.

After their mother died, their father married Joann (Cat Hammons) and has been with her for 25 years. Joann is the mother of their half-sister Mikey (Aja Bair).

Mikey had a different childhood from June and Cami and doesn’t understand why her much older sisters think their father is such an awful person. Between the road trip, some bonding at the side of their father’s hospital bed, and a couple of nasty arguments, these sisters manage to find their way to each other. Each of them have their own epiphany and healing moments.

The film is a comedy, despite what my description so far has suggested. For example, June dons a warm vest and stocking cap when she leaves California because she’s going ‘up north’ where it’s cold. Everyone around her is in shirtsleeves but she wears her clothes for up north the whole way.

The situations and conversations on the road are full of humor and pathos. The actors are excellent. Jennifer Sorenson wrote the screenplay and Michelle Steffes directed.

It’s always a treat to find a low budget indie that deserves to be called a hidden gem. This is one of those films. You can see it on Tubi or rent it from several other streamers.