So this is Jane Campion’s recent western, except not really. Because:

  1. Even though it says it’s set in Montana, it’s filmed in New Zealand and it’s really obvious that it is. Like, when they’re showing the “Rocky Mountains,” I keep expecting to see a beacon as Gondor calls for aid.

  2. I’ve heard worse cowboy accents out of Brits, but Benedict Cumberbatch as a cowboy is still not fully 100% working in the purely immersive sense.

  3. But mostly, while it is set in the right place (Montana) and right-ish time (1925) and dealing with the proper profession (cowboying), this just really isn’t a western at all. It’s a character drama; maaaaaaybe a kind of gothic, with a big house in the country and a family that’s full of secrets. But not a western.

But it is an excellent movie. This is one of those subtle films where characters don’t give big ol’ soliloquies spelling out their interior feelings and their motivations. You need to read between the lines, in the fleeting expressions, in the things they leave unsaid, in the moments that make them unreasonably angry; and there you find the hidden heartbeat of the movie.

It’s not an obscure movie; I don’t think most people will reach the end without having figured out what the movie wants you to figure out; but at the same time, you do have to figure it out, the movie isn’t going to walk you through it with a patient step-by-step.

And I realize that what I’m saying is kind of spoily, that by telling you the movie is more than it seems on the surface, I’m changing your experience of watching it. Normally I’d be careful about that, but here, it’s obvious really quickly that everything is not everywhere exactly as it seems. If anything, the movie is setting up a superfluity of mysteries for you, such that even if you’re expecting something unexpected, you won’t be clear which direction it’s coming from.

But so anyway, the thing about a movie like this is that it doesn’t work at all if the actors don’t fully inhabit their characters, and give them a depth and texture that goes layers deep; and the actors here do an amazing job, all of them. Combine that with directing that focuses on those characters while somehow also focusing on the wide-open Monzealana landscape, and a musical score that ramps up the tension even when there’s no obvious tension to ramp up, and it’s just a really impressively well-made movie. Netflix gets a bad rap for making Netflix Movies(tm), but this isn’t one of those at all. Highly recommended.