You know the clich� ? sometimes the punch line to a joke, sometimes the start to a horror film ? about the couple who gets more and more lost because the husband refuses to admit it?
Well, ?Meek?s Cutoff? turns it into a serious Western.
It is 1845, and three families are headed to fertile land in the Oregon Territory, led by an old pioneer with a suit of fringed buckskin and a saddlebag full of tall tales.
The one thing he doesn?t seem to have though, is a good sense of direction. Which really could come in handy when you seem to be wandering somewhere deep in desolate Utah.
So the families go north, then south, then north again, all after endless discussions among the patriarchs. When one of the wives finally suggests going back to the better-known route they just passed ? the equivalent of saying, ?Hon, why don?t we pull into that nice gas station and ask?? ? the men ignore her.
Meek?s Cutoff (PG) Oscilloscope (104 min.) Directed by Kelly Reichardt. With Michelle Williams, Shirley Henderson, Paul Dano. Now playing in New York.
Rating note: The film contains some mild violence and strong language.
Stephen Whitty's Review: THREE STARS
Yet although the guide may not know where they are heading, once the water starts to run low and a mysterious Indian begins tracking them, we can guess where this is going to end up.
?Meek?s Cutoff? was made by Kelly Reichardt, an interesting and economical indie director whose last film was the bleak ?Wendy and Lucy,? about a young homeless woman and her dog just trying to get by.
This film brings back that movie?s star ? the wonderfully open-faced Michelle Williams ? and much of its sad inevitability.
Yet our interest is constantly stoked by Reichardt?s choices as a director.
For one thing, eschewing the usual wide-screen, she?s shot the film in the 1:1.33 format ? the sort of old three-by-four ratio that hasn?t been regularly used in decades. (I can already see confusion in projection rooms across the country.)
That helps underline the ironic way this vast space has trapped these families, just as to emphasize the film?s feminist viewpoint, Reichardt places her camera squarely with the women ? who can only barely hear, from a distance, as the men make all the decisions.
Perhaps that?s why when the pioneers catch the Indian following them ? and force him to serve as a sort of guide ? Williams identifies with the ?savage,? and his own voicelessness. After all, no one understands what he?s saying, either. Or cares.
Occasionally, the film ? which, admittedly, has one of those abrupt, what-just-happened endings that can leave audiences fuming ? doesn?t say enough itself.
We see that one pioneer, Paul Dano, is very intent on making a fortune in this new land; another, Shirley Henderson, seems rather devout. Williams and her husband have the most equal partnership, perhaps because she?s younger than he is and a bit more spirited than the rest.
But anything more than that is strictly guesswork.
Yet somehow, ?Meek?s Cutoff? keeps us guessing, and watching, as these small figures wander lost in a landscape, running from things we can only imagine ? and toward a destination they can only hope for.
media news media entertainment cinemas entertainment tonight entertainment weekly
No comments:
Post a Comment