Sue Lyle

Cinematically gorgeous. The landscape is a leading character in the film. It is slow. Dialogue is sparse. Indoor filming is dark and haunting. As we look outside through window frames we get the sense of the novel the film is based on and we are the readers interpreting the scenes. As an observation of different ways to be a man in 1928 Montana it reveals how men’s gaze is as much on themselves as other men, posturing and othering as they struggle to find how to express their masculinity without shame. How to be men rather than acting a role. Dominic cumberbatch is superb and what at first seems like over acting toxic masculinity falls away as we see the man away from his audience. Very moving and painful. How hard it is to be oneself in our judgmental world. Campion gives such insight into the complexities of just being.

I loved it. The slow pace, beautiful photography, the agony of surviving WW1, characterisation, capturing the upper class so well.