Starring: Hilary Swank, Tommy Lee Jones, Meryl Streep, Miranda Otto
The Homesman
Director: Tommy Lee Jones
Rating: 3.5/5
Tommy Lee Jones made his feature film directorial debut back in 2005 with The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and now he is back in the director's chair with The Homesman, which also sees him on the cast and have a hand in penning the screenplay.
The Homesman sees Jones tackle a Western drama as he teams up with double Oscar winner Hilary Swank for the first time.
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 (Swank). 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 (Jones), to join her.
The unlikely pair and the three women (Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto, Sonja Richter) head east, where a waiting minister and his wife (Streep) 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.
The Western is not as common a sight on the big screen as it use to be - which is a real shame as I happen to think that it is a terrific film genre - and it is great to see it being explored again by Jones and co.
However, this is a Western movie that really has been made from a woman's point of view, as Jones explores the pressure and struggles that were faced by women on the frontier, which is something that we haven't seen all that much in this genre over the years.
There is no denying that this is a sombre and at times a grim movie, but the terrific central performance from Hilary Swank is really what will keep you glued - this is a performance that is being tipped as a possible outsider for a Best Actress Oscar nomination and it is not hard to see why.
Swank has brought to life several incredibly strong women during her acting career, but this is one of her best roles so far. She has really got under the skin of Mary Bee Cuddy a strong-willed woman who has battled to survive in one of the harshest environments.
The Homesman is a movie that does have its flaws as it does suffer from tone issues in the second half of the film. The first half of the movie is definitely the film's strength but the second half doesn't quite live up to that.
But the strong central performances from Swank and Jones in particular - as well as the stunning visuals - really will keep you absorbed from start to finish. This is a progressive Western when it comes to the female characters in the film, and it is great to see Jones delivers something different to what we have seen before.
He has dared to try something new with the female characters and challenge the way that they have been portrayed in the past, personally, I think it works incredibly well and is a real strength of this film.
I was a huge fan of Jones' directorial debut The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and it is great to see him back behind the camera once more - it really is just a shame that it has taken so long for him to return to filmmaking. Fingers crossed it is something that he will explore further and we won't have to wait quite as long to see the results.
