Tommy Lee Jones’ second film as director (after The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada) is this vastly satisfying frontier Western that screened to acclaim at Cannes 2014.
Jones stars as claim jumper George Briggs who’s saved from some vigilante justice ( a near-lynching) by awkward, pious claimswoman Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank). Finding himself reluctantly in her debt, he is forced into helping her on an odd quest to escort three insane women (whose illness has left them cowardly abandoned by their husbands) across hundreds of miles of Midwestern plains; encountering violent gangs, American Indians and awful weather conditions along the way.
Their charges have apparently been driven mad by tragedies amid the harshness and desolation of their pioneer lives, and Lee Jones makes clear the effects of the frontier lifestyle on Briggs and Cuddy as well – Briggs is prone to drinking bouts while Cuddy’s piety is clearly borne of long-suppressed pain, and their shared loneliness means they eventually form a bond, despite their odd-couple start.
With supporting appearances from Meryl Streep, James Spader and Tim Blake Nelson, The Homesman is an intriguing take on the traditional Western.