The Homesman

The Homesman, written and directed and starring Tommy Lee Jones tells the story of Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) a spinster who takes on the responsibility of bringing three insane women to Iowa where they can be taken care of.

She saves or spares the life of George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) and enlists him on her arduous five week journey.

When you see Hilary Swank and Tommy Lee Jones, you know the acting is going to be stellar. The parts of the insane women, Arabella Sours (Grace Gummer), Theoline Belknapp (Miranda Otto), Gro Svendsen (Sonja Richter) because of the great directing remained the focus while being secondary characters. The movie had a Shakespearean feel to it and that is a great compliment. These ladies portrayed insanity, believably and that takes serious dedication and acting ability.

"The Homesman" was a tragedy and because of it, some people might not be able to pallet the story; there were some shocking attention grabbing scenes that the average viewer might not be prepared for. Those scenes, to me, were great examples of a different time, a time when life was hard and people died.

The Homesman is a story that sits with you and makes you thankful for many things, even if it just the shoes on your feet.

'THE HOMESMAN': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Tommy Lee Jones directed, co-wrote and stars in this western/drama film (set in the 1850s midwest) about a 'spinster' and a 'drifter' transporting three women, driven mad by the hardships of the time, across the country. It costars Hilary Swank, Miranda Otto, Grace Gummer and Sonja Richter. It also features cameos by Meryl Streep, John Lithgow, James Spader, Tim Blake Nelson, William Fichtner and Hailee Steinfeld. The film was written by Jones, Kieran Fitzgerald and Wesley Oliver and it's based on the 1988 novel, of the same name, by Glendon Swarthout. French filmmaker Luc Besson served as a producer of the movie and it also features a breathtaking music score by Marco Beltrami. It's surprisingly dark, and extremely disturbing, but I enjoyed it due to it's strong character development, outstanding performances and odd beauty.

Swank plays Mary Bee Cuddy, a strong and independent 31-year-old woman from New York. She desperately wants to find a husband but can't, due to men finding her too plain looking (I don't think Swank looks bad at all in this movie, considering the film's time and setting). When the local reverend (Lithgow) asks for someone to transport three women across the country, to a church in Hebron Iowa, Cuddy volunteers. The women (Otto, Gummer and Richter) are all mentally ill and the church will provide the special help they need. Cuddy comes across a drifter named George Briggs (Jones), who's about to be lynched for 'claim jumping', and asks him for his help (in return for saving his life). The two make the long journey together and form an odd bond.

The movie has been called a 'feminist western', by many, and I'd definitely agree it's a strong female character study, about the hardships women faced at the time. Swank is outstanding in the co- lead and Jones is just as classic and tough as ever; he does (unintentionally I think) steal some of the female cast's thunder. Jones also proves he's an equally talented director (once again) and the movie is full of beautiful visuals, as well as haunting imagery. For me the highlight of the film is the beautiful music and the touching relationships formed by the movie's central characters (it also has a shocking and unexpected twist, at the end of the second act). It's a hard film to watch, at times, but definitely worth it; if you're a fan of the genre or even if you're not.

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December 19, 2014

A homesman is someone tasked to bring people back to their homes. In this film, the people that needed safe transport are three mentally- disturbed women. Mary Bee McCuddy, a plain but hardy spinster, volunteered to be their homesman. Along the way, she rescues a old man Thomas Briggs from being hung by vigilantes and conscripts him to help her with her mission in exchange for saving his life. Together, they gather the three ladies and escort them from Nebraska homes across the dangerous Midwest prairie to a safe haven in Iowa.

Hilary Swank is an actress who had already won a couple of Oscars for playing strong women who had taken on masculine roles in life -- Brandon Teena in "Boys Don't Cry" and Maggie Fitzgerald in "Million Dollar Baby". As Mary Bee McCuddy, a pioneer lady who bravely accepts a task only men are expected to do, Swank again goes on the same award-baiting path. The movie worked so well when Swank was on screen. She was absolutely compelling in this offbeat role as if this was written with her in mind. The movie was not the same when her character was not there.

Tommy Lee Jones is one actor who, as of late, had seemingly been confined to playing curmudgeonly and cantankerous old men, and his Briggs here is not any different. This film is only Jones' second directorial effort since his critically-acclaimed debut in "Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" back in 2005. As director, he was very generous to his lead female star Swank, and always gave way to let her shine. As actor, he does consistently as he is expected but this role of a grumpy old outlaw seems too familiar for him already. He wisely played Briggs with some self-deprecating humor to break the tendency of the story to become monotonously bleak.

There were some remarkable cameos from other award-winning or nominated stars in much smaller roles. John Lithgow is his usual capable self playing the Reverend Dowd who reluctantly sends McCuddy off on her task. Hailee Steinfeld plays 16-year old Tabitha Hutchinson to whom Briggs offers a surprising proposal. James Spader, in his usual over-the-top style, plays condescending hotel owner Aloysius Duffy. And last, but definitely not the least, none other than THE Meryl Streep plays perfectly kind and hospitable Altha Carter, who runs the institution in Iowa the women are headed for. These actors appear on screen for only ten minutes or so, but they leave a lasting impression.

The narrative may have been slow and desolate . However, the unusual situations, disturbing imagery, startling story developments and committed performances by the cast all keep our attention riveted. The cinematography with the muted colors worked well with the windswept landscape of its setting, as much a character in itself. The costumes and production design rang true to its mid-19th century time period. The haunting and unsettling musical score create an atmosphere of bitter emptiness. The insufferably miserable topic is clearly not for everyone. But for those who decide to give it a chance, the rewards will be satisfying. 7/10.

The Homesman, about a 31 year old (un-married/childless) woman (Hilary Swank) who takes up the challenge of bringing three crazed women across the Nebraska plains over five weeks with the help of a deserter-drifter left for dead (Jones), is in some ways meant to be a real Feminist Western (with a capital 'F'), and not in the way that a silly work like The Quick and the Dead was with Sharon Stone. Here, it's much more about depicting a time and place that was quite bleak and desolate and, in some spaces, without much hope. Ultimately Tommy Lee Jones, through the novel it's based on, sees a little more light at the end of the tunnel for his protagonist than, say, Eastwood did in Unforgiven. But it's a combination of things it's about, and emotionally the film does work quite well, in particular in the relationship that unfolds between the two leads.

If you're curious to see a western that has the love of the plains of the West visually speaking ala Ford, but has the dark contours of someone like Mann - and added to that those super dirty production designs and character realizations from Spaghetti Westerns - this might be it, at least up to a point. It's so unrelentingly dark in how it looks on at the deteriorating mental states of these women, and the desperation in the journey for Jones and Swanks' characters, that the few moments of humor are rather surprising - and welcome - especially when Jones first appears to Swank on the noose and the horse. It's the kind of scene that shows this actor, well into his 60's and pushing 70, trying something new in a performance (if only for a scene or two).

It's got a cast that is practically distracting for the who's who that shows up, mostly for one scene a piece: James Spader, Tim Blake Nelson, John Lithgow, William Fichtner, Meryl Streep (!) and Hailee Steinfeld (who appears almost to have wandered from the True Grit set to this one). There's so much going for the Homesman that it's a shame the script is uneven, and there's a plot twist two thirds of the way through that is sort of explained but not at all at the same time, and it leaves the film with a gaping tragedy that can never quite be filled. Interestingly, if you watch the behind the scenes on the blu-ray one of the screenwriters mentions the book left things unexplained as well. That might be fine in the book - or perhaps more was explained in other ways - but it still doesn't work, and what Jones goes for in awe-inspiring shots he leaves behind with some muddled story beats.

Nevertheless, The Homesman is a good Western, a solid western digging into the roots of the genre and mixing the unsavory and horrifying (not like a horror movie, just some repellant images at times, but for a point), though whether one will want to return to it like other, better Westerns is another story. It's the kind of picture I can't put down for its artistry, even if things can be looked at more critically, which may explain why it didn't find its way through the End-of-Awards-time (albeit it was accepted at Cannes).

I really liked the western "The Homesman", but I strongly suspect that it won't be to everyone's taste. And I will admit that even this die hard fan of westerns didn't find it a perfect movie. The opening thirty minutes of the movie, for one thing, are somewhat confusing with some details, though eventually everything comes together and the audience knows what's been going on. And after that first thirty minutes, the movie continues to test the patience of viewers by being quite slow moving and long (the movie is over two hours long.) But I stuck with the movie despite all those things, and I feel I was rewarded in the end. The atmosphere of the movie feels extremely authentic, showing many of the hardships life in the wild west gave many people. Though the story is slow-moving, there are a number of interesting vignettes along the way. And you probably won't predict what eventually happens - the major plot turn around the two-thirds mark really took me by surprise. The last scene is a little unclear as to where one of the characters is headed, but it is memorable all the same. As I said, the movie is not for all tastes, but western fans who are in a patient mood will likely embrace it despite its flaws.