Kelly Reichardt’s new film, starring Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Will Patton and Michelle Williams, feels much more like a European film in its pacing than an American one. The film follows three families, traveling by wagon through the Oregon Desert in 1845 with a guide that has gotten them lost. As their situation worsens, water becomes more valuable than gold. Soon they are so desperate that they intrust their lives to a Native American man who was stalking them through the desert and with whom they have no way of communicating beyond the most fundamental gestures.
The film is beautiful, if sometimes a bit boring. The cinematography and art direction are on par with much more expensive productions, making this low budget feature an anomoly. Ms. Reichardt assembled a cast of familiar faces, all deeply talented actors, and took them through the desert on her journey, but she did not do it on Hollywood’s dollar. Instead, she stays independent and accordingly has the freedom to make a film in which not a lot happens. There is no love triangle, no murder, no shoot out. Instead, much like the wagon travelers of American History must have experienced the landscape, the audience of the film is given a combination of discomfort, fear, monotony and boredom. Perhaps the film’s greatest accomplishment is the uncertainty it leaves us concerning the fates of these West-bound Americans. While the ensemble is extremely well cast, Shirley Henderson particularly shines in her performance.
This film is undoubtedly not for everyone, but I recommend it. Ms. Reichardt has real talent and deserves more opportunity at the helm than the male-dominated world of American Independent Film wants to allow her. This is a very different film from Wendy and Lucy, and a very different film than Old Joy. It shows range in this director at the same time that it continues to refine her specific voice and style.
