N Harris

I saw this film in the theater over the weekend knowing nothing about it other than having watched the trailer. It was a disappointment on many levels. The story is slow moving, gets lost along the way, and sort of comes back around at the end but not in a way that makes any of it feel worth the journey. The storytelling is contrived and wades into the "culture war" stuff in an unartful manner. Namely the evils of masculinity and manifestation of repressed homosexuality. The movie is heavy handed in this regard and not compelling. For example, one of the primary themes of the movie is the dismantling of America's romanticized vision of cowboys and cowboy culture. Think “dark side of John Wayne”, if you will. That's fine, go for it if that's the tool you want to use to make broader societal commentary on masculinity. However, the character development is hackneyed and lacks depth. In this movie... all the “strong males” are uncaring, power hungry, devoid of manners or empathy, and definitely a little repressed sexually. Please, wake me up when it's over. That said, I did mostly enjoy the cinematography, although some of the imagery was ham-handed. The Montana landscape, overall set design and costumes were all great. The score was misplaced as well. Not terrible, but off at times. Kind of like someone thought about it too much and just missed the mark in a very noticeable way. The acting was mostly good. Jesse Plemons stood out to me. He continues to remind me of Philip Seymour Hoffman. However, his character goes missing for some period in the middle of the film and never reemerges in a meaningful way. And Cumberbatch was solid despite being put into some awkward scenes. But the story... just a total flop.