The Homesman

The Homesman

By

  • Genre: Western, Drama
  • Release Date: 2014-05-18
  • Runtime: 122 minutes
  • : 6.5
  • Production Company: The Javelina Film Company
  • Production Country: United States of America, France
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6.5/10
6.5
From 785 Ratings

Description

When three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad by harsh pioneer life, the task of saving them falls to the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy. Transporting the women by covered wagon to Iowa, she soon realizes just how daunting the journey will be, and employs a low-life drifter, George Briggs, to join her. The unlikely pair and the three women head east, where a waiting minister and his wife have offered to take the women in. But the group first must traverse the harsh Nebraska Territories marked by stark beauty, psychological peril and constant threat.

Trailer

Reviews

  • Reno

    7
    By Reno
    > An unusual western road trip drama. A novel based film starred and directed by the 70 years old Tommy Lee Jones. An unusual realistic western drama with a fantastic cast. It sets around the time 1850 and the story of three mentally ill wives who were transported to a safe facility by a man and a woman who hired him in exchange of saving his life. During this both way road trip, what they go through is what finely told. Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank were excellent in their parts. She was the best, you would definitely feel her role's eagerness to get a normal life with a husband and children. Which is very important for the personal and the social life of that time. And at this old age, Tommy Lee did a great job in all the fields he had undertaken for this project. His vision was the most appreciable. Felt like I saw a wonderful western film after a long time. But some of the events were needed a good explanation like one of the deaths in the film. Since it was a tale of the cowboy culture era, few things were understandable, but not everyone going to get those parts. So the details were missing yet not a bad film. The characters were not introduced in a usual way, it only goes forward by developing the story and by the end you would feel you know them enough. And at the final act, there was a couple of guest appearances and steals the show. It is not your regular western, totally worth a watch and that's my suggestion. 7/10

  • CinemaSerf

    6
    By CinemaSerf
    Two strong performances from Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank do much to lift this rather simple, plodding, story but sadly in the end, it seemed to me to be a very thinly spread amalgam of stories that lacked any real substance and was, frankly, quite depressing. Swank is "Mary Bee Cuddy" who is looking after three women who have, for various reasons, found the pioneering life of the wild west beyond them and pretty much lost the plot, psychologically speaking. Being a good Christian, she decides to relocate these women into the care of a distant church. Meantime, TLJ is the drifter "George Briggs" whom she happens upon strung up from a tree. She releases him on condition that he helps her escort her charges, and off we go on a perilous trek. The cinematography is gorgeous - it's great at conveying not just the scale of the country they are crossing, but also of the harshness of the wintry conditions they must endure as they travel. Their lengthy journey, though, really robs the film of any pace, and the inevitable bonding of the two after some initial suspicion is just too predictable - and uncomfortable to watch. It's not without it's tragedy, but somehow even that didn't resonate much and by the time it reached it's conclusion I felt that I'd been watching two hours with something missing... It is beautifully crafted film with a good accompaniment from Marco Beltrami, but I'm not sure I'll ever watch it again.

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