The Homesman

Through the years, the western genre has apparently had its overhaul, and I believe the change has sparked a new interest in these films as ever before. We've seen "No Country For Old Men" '07, "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" '05, "The Missing" '03, "Brokeback Mountain" '05, even "The Lone Ranger"'13, so why not add to that list by offering "The Homesman"?

Three women, Arabella Sours (Grace Gummer), Theoline Belknap (Miranda Otto), and Gro Svendsen (Sonja Richter) living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad by the harsh pioneer life, and the task of saving them falls to the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank). Transporting the women by a wood-covered wagon to Iowa, she is desperate for help on the daunting journey, and inadvertently comes across a low-life man who is in the process of being hung. To save his life, he, George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) reluctantly agrees to help her with these women. The unlikely pair, the proverbial 'odd couple', and three troublesome women head east, where a waiting minister and his wife, Altha Carter (Meryl Streep) have offered to take the women in. But the group must first traverse the harsh Nebraska Territories marked by stark beauty, psychological peril and constant threat.

Others to round out the cast are Jo Harvey Allen as Mrs. Polhemus, Barry Corbin as Buster Shaver, David Dencik as Thor Svendsen, William Fichtner as Vester Belknap, Evan Jones as Bob Giffen, Caroline Lagerfelt as Netti, John Lithgow as Reverend Alfred Dowd, Tim Blake Nelson as The Freighter, Jesse Plemons as Garn Sours, James Spader as Aloysius Duffy, and Hailee Steinfeld as Tabitha Hutchinson.

This was grittily and eerily directed by Tommy Lee Jones ("The Good Old Boys" (TV movie) '95, "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" '05, "The Sunset Limited" (TV movie) '11). If Jones ever decided to quit acting, he could certainly go into directing full time, because he knows just how to extract the correct emotions from his actors at just the right time. Obviously, being an actor himself has definitely served him as a director--it's easier to direct when you've walked in the same shoes as the actors. He gave this story the starkness, the eeriness which actually made it very non-western like. It was written by Jones, Kieran Fitzgerald and Wesley A. Oliver based on the novel, "The Homesman" by Glendon
Swarthout which made for a meaty source. The only possible flaw in this was that there were a few places of lack of continuity which could cause little confusion, but over all, this premise was amazing and the execution in script was both interesting and intriguing. Besides, Jones clearly gets better with age like a fine wine, and with his incredible talent as a director and writer, this makes him that much more consummate. Also, Swank simply shined here as the hard-nosed, independent Cuddy. This has got to be the best thing she's done since "Million Dollar Baby" '04.

Whether you like westerns or not, you'll like this for reasons of good acting, directing and writing and the fact that this is not your typical western, which, in my book, makes this a film that soars.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                               Rated: R                                  122mins.