Movie: The Homesman

The Homesman:  not your typical western.  The film opens with Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) plowing a field.  It is Nebraska in the early 1850’s.  The film initially focuses on Mary Bee and her uniqueness in the small farming community.  She is single and self-supporting.  She also wants a husband.  As the storyline develops, we learn how lonely and devastating life is for most women living on the frontier.  In fact, three women have become mentally ill and need to be returned to civilization which, in this story, is Iowa.  Mary Bee is the person who will take the women to Iowa because no one else in the community appears willing or capable of handling the multi-week journey.  Shortly before her journey begins, Mary Bee meets the Tommy Lee Jones character, George Briggs, who is sitting on a horse with a noose around his neck and the rope tied to a tree.  She saves Briggs from the hanging and extracts his promise to help her take the women to Iowa.  Once the journey begins, there are clips of traditional western footage with a bad man scene and a scene with Indians.  The bleakness of the journey and the landscape is fully developed.  Although the three women are in many of the scenes, this film is about Mary Bee and, later, about Briggs.  Tommy Lee Jones directs this 120 minute movie and the script is based upon a book with the same title.  There are surprises and I won’t comment further on the storyline.  There are three actors with short but memorable roles:  John Lithgow in the first part of the movie as the reverend who organizes the trip; Meryl Streep at the end of the film as the Iowa minister’s wife; and James Spader in a short but memorable scene - as only Spader is able to do: you will remember his character.  The film plays out as a critique of virtually all female characters in every western movie you’ve ever seen.  Swank’s performance could result in another Oscar nomination for her.  Jones is also superb but, like Bill Murray in St. Vincent, Briggs is a character Jones has done many times before.  Rodrigo Prieto may receive a nomination for cinematography.  I recommend you see this movie.