Place of Bones

A mother and daughter are struggling to survive in the wild frontier when a stranger appears in desperate need of help along with a bag ill-gotten gains along with a band of unsavory characters that put to test the ladies determination and strength. This Western thriller stars Heather Graham (Pandora), Brielle Robilliard (Hester), Corin Nemec (Calhoun), Tom Hopper (Bear John), Donald Cerrone (Minor Wilson), David Lipper (Ed Singletary), Gattlin Griffith (Cherokee Jack). The film is well directed by Audrey Cummings. Richard Taylor wrote this frightening and disturbing western that tapped into this western genre that you rarely see that we need more of. I mean just when you think the direction the film is going it turns on a dime making you think what the heck just happened. The music score just adds to this film it is so good. The acting is so good that I wanted more. Enjoy this film.

This was a decent western, and I am not into western movies generally due to the slanted views of Indigenous Americans and the Misogynist treatment of women.

That being said, I found this one watchable, but not without plot holes and actions by the women that seems off base due to their circumstances.

The male antagonist lived up to their roles of being of the same mindset of right-wing maganuts. So I commend them on their acting chops. I didn't like any of them, so they did an excellent job.

Other than some of the antics by the daughter and two gapping plot holes, I quite enjoyed this.

Oh yeah, the twist at the end was nifty and after it came up I had an Aha moment.

Great acting. Great dialogue. Great storyline. Great cinematography.

At first it seems like a basic movie with low budget, but when you have great acting and special FX that works, a basic movie turns into} something special like this. Under normal circumstances, you'd expect to get bored with so much dialogue, but I didn't experience that with this movie. The dialogue was funny, it was intelligent and interesting. The twist at the end was surprising even though it really didn't have anything to do with the actually occurrence in the movie.

All in all, it's a pretty decent Western, give it a chance.

It was quite clichéd throughout. A desperate widow and her daughter live alone in the middle of nowhere, with no horses or obvious farming-just a grave for her deceased husband and nothing else. I thought the girl was feeding chickens, but there are no chickens to be fed; she's just scattering small stones around. One day they end up with a con man and a bunch of stolen money in their cabin. How will they survive the real bad guys who are after the con man? I watched with many questions until, at the very end, everything falls into place. This is one of those movies where you can expect a sequel. Just for the ending, my rating goes from 5 to 8.

What to say about this film? Be patient? It's almost worth watching, using your valuable time on this planet, just to see the twisted finale. I consumed only 3/4 of this film before bed, before I couldn't take anymore. I was disappointed. Other than a really cool Smith & Wesson Schofield, beautiful stained glass windows and some sudden, unexpected graphic violence, it was rather slow with poor acting. Then I watched the remainder, the next morning, with a good cup of coffee. Things changed overnight, creating a hunger that allowed me to see some of the value in "Place of Bones". Likely, the greatest problem was the scarce budget. Not sure how they could afford Heather Graham, as Pandora, or why she agreed? Perhaps times are thin, she needed to stalk her freezer? Or, maybe she's just a actor who likes to have a bit of fun, feeding her appetite for a western from time to time (see "The Last Son" 2021 for better fare). Tom Hopper, as Bear John and leader of the baddies,was the weakest character in my humble opinion. Even his costume sucked, especially the modern cowboy hat. The story has some great potential but similar tales, films, already exist. One in particular comes to mind, one that is much better but I'm not going to spoil this film for you. Kudos to the rest of Bear John's gang as, they were cool characters with sweet costumes. Liked Zachary Keller as Little Pete and totally missed the awesome MMA star Donald Cerrone as Minor Wilson; until I started investigating the film further. They all did a reasonable job being good black hats. A short call out to Ray Abruzzo as Lester. Though he is only in the film briefly, his characters dress and deportment come across really well, making you wish you had more. This film takes a lot of time before it redeems itself? If can't recommend it, except to starving western fans like myself, who keep devouring anything in the genre. There is some fun to be had here but you have to be quite patient, and hungry.