Meek’s Cutoff
Sunshine Cinema, May 16, 2011
Movie #29 for 2011
I feel pretty strongly that there is not nearly enough ambiguity in film these days (or, perhaps, ever). There is a time and a place for a well telegraphed plot, don’t get me wrong, I would just like to see more films tell you what happens in the end, is all. Especially of the kind in Meek's Cutoff.
In Meek’s Cutoff, a small group of pioneers are lost somewhere in the Oregon desert in 1845. They have strayed into unknown territory from the more heavily trafficked route, following a self-aggrandizing guide named Meek (BRUCE GREENWOOD, The World’s Fastest Indian, Capote). The pioneers are starting to doubt their choice, but Meek continues to bluff the navigation. Or perhaps he really does know the way? Things are complicated when the group captures an American Indian (ROD RONDEAUX) who plainly knows the land better than Meek. But can he be trusted to help the pioneers?
Ambiguity is central to Meek’s Cutoff. It gently, quietly unfolds to reveal - or at least hint at - motivations, relationships, power dynamics and shifting allegiances in increasingly desperate circumstances. And really, considering there is very little dialogue and not over-much interaction between characters, that’s some really skillful film-making right there.
MICHELLE WILLIAMS (Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine) is standout among a very strong cast as Emily Tetherow, the practical and hard young second wife of the older and slightly more optimistic Solomon (WILL PATTON (Armegeddon, Remember the Titans). Although, all of the pioneers - played by PAUL DANO (There Will Be Blood, Little Miss Sunshine), ZOE KAZAN (HappyThankYouMorePlease), SHIRLEY HENDERSON (Life During Wartime, Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day) and NEAL HUFF (“The Wire”) - are well drawn and acted.
The characters are as nuanced and rich, as is the landscape and the slowly rising sense of dread. Writer JONATHON RAYMOND and director KELLY REICHARDT (who have previously collaborated on Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy) are clearly very comfortable with each other’s idiosyncrasies and their preferred pace, treatment and subject matter. It makes for a singular - and wonderfully ambiguous - film.
