“We have to drive 50
miles to go 5. Welcome to Wyoming.”
Not only is this a cool line of dialogue, but I believe
it perfectly captures how much the land and the environment affect the story,
pacing, and tone of Wind River. The
movie starts with a girl running panicked through the wintery woods before
collapsing in the night. She is then discovered frozen by Jeremy Renner, a
trained tracker who knows his ways around these parts and with these people—even
if he is a white outsider. It’s obvious he has some sort of troubled past that
hunches on his back despite his efforts to push forward. This mysterious past
motivates him to help the young FBI agent Elizabeth Olsen with the case; and
coming straight from Las Vegas, it’s obvious that she needs the help of a
local.
The movie has ominous undertones of the dark side of
humanity sprinkled within the glistening snow of the beautiful landscape. The
serious, almost straight-forward approach to the simplistic story kept
reminding me of Sicario, and I didn’t
realize until afterward that it’s the same writer. This writer Taylor Sheridan,
who previously was lauded for both Sicario
and Hell or High Water, both writes
and directs for this film. He’s definitely imitating aspects from Denis
Villeneuve, and if there’s a director to imitate, he’s one of the best choices.
With that said, I think the production, editing, score, and cinematography are
all ultimately better than the decent directing.
On the surface the film is about a murder investigation
on an Indian reservation with an FBI agent receiving help from a skilled
tracker/hunter. And except a nice turn from Jon Bernthal, there’s nothing
really surprising here. Some shocking moments, but nothing surprising. But that’s
rightfully not the focus of the film. And neither are the decently developed
characters. Wyoming takes the starring role here. There’s enough snow in sight
to freeze a polar bear, and despite how little that analogy may make sense, it’s
true. And it’s used to full effect with blistering wide shots mixed with shivering
closeups of the characters. The setting is an obstacle, a visual splendor, a
kickstarter for the right moments in the plot, and an underlying motivation.
Without Wyoming, this movie is nowhere near the same.
As much as I praise the setting for this film, you do
still have to knock the film a bit for the story. The unflinching storytelling—almost
reminiscent of Prisoners—will work
for some, and may be a slight turnoff for others looking for a more upbeat movie.
That’s not really the issue. Olsen and Renner run into new characters,
potential suspects even, and it’s pretty easy to tell from the get-go how all
these encounters are going to go. To keep with the Prisoners comparison, there’s no Jake Gyllenhaal to do detective
work here. And to Taylor Sheridan’s credit, he plays up the mood, setting, and
characters to focus on them because he can’t rely on a plot twist filled story
to keep the audience engaged.
This film really does try to replicate a lot of the
successful tension built in Sicario.
It works to some degree, and the filmmakers do an admirable job trying to
coverup any other shortcomings this film has. It’s not the best film, and it
certainly isn’t a joyous film, but if you’re trying to think of something to
watch, this is a better choice than plenty of other movies. Heck, it definitely
won’t put you in a merry spirit, but it’s got plenty of snow to be a movie to
watch over the break. And I’ve been watching movies left and right lately, so
keep expecting reviews to come in. And as soon as I see The Last Jedi in just a couple days, I’ll be sure to put my
thoughts down immediately. Until next time, yippee-kai-yay, motherf**kers.
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