Tag: Michelle Williams

Tribeca 2012 Daily Recap: April 20th

My Friday morning at TFF started off with more Magnum Ice Cream, of course. It doesn’t matter what time of the day, it is always a good time for free ice cream. After enjoying my super nutritional frozen breakfast, I walked over to Clearview Cinemas for one of my most anticipated films of the fest.

There are moments in TAKE THIS WALTZ that I absolutely loved and there are moments I was put off by the forced subtlety and repetition. That seems to be exactly how Margot (Michelle Williams) feels about her marriage in the film so this may have been a stylistic choice on the part of writer / director Sarah Polley. Or it could just be that I am not a fan of watching grounded-in-reality relationships where no one says what they actually mean. It is probably pretty telling that despite everyone’s fantastic emotionally charged performances, my favorite was Seth Rogen who seemed to be most at ease handling the intense mix of drama and comedy.

After dissecting (i.e., criticizing) the ending with some fellow press, I made my way over to the Filmmaker Lounge to meet up with Ala LaFave. I thought the press lounge was bad; the Filmmaker Lounge truly is a hike from the main festival venues. It is the perfect distance to make you question walking, but not far enough to warrant paying for a cab. Upon leaving the lounge, I noticed a table by the door full of postcards & posters for the films playing at TFF. Why is there nothing like this at the press lounge or at the theaters for the public to see?

Before making the trek back to the theater, Alan and I decided to grab a “quick” lunch at Shake Shack. I have heard constantly that it is the best burger in NY and despite being a New Yorker my whole life; I’ve never eaten there. Apparently the 1-hour wait is no myth. It took 55 minutes to order & another 10 minutes before the food was ready. We had to eat the food on the walk back to make the next movie on time. Sadly the food was good but definitely not worth the time or money. At least the movie that followed was quite entertaining and inspiring.

DON’T STOP BELIEVIN: EVERYMAN’S JOURNEY is nowhere near as cheesy as you might assume based on the title. The documentary covers the “journey” of Arnel Pineda from his beginnings as a poor musician in Manila to becoming the new lead singer of Journey. It is a thoroughly enjoyable doc that works for fans or even just casual listeners. After watching, I couldn’t believe how many of their songs I actually knew. It made me want to go pick up a greatest hits CD. Thankfully, my dad already had one for me to borrow. (Now that is a scary thought.) Even more shocking, this doc would be rated R due to language. Who knew the drummer from Journey cursed so much?

I talked a bit with Chris Bourne (@bournecinema) about the doc before heading right into my final flick of the day, RESOLUTION. I heard some great things from the pre-festival screening and I’ve been tweeting with co-director Aaron Moorhead leading up to the fest so I had high hopes for the film. It did not disappoint. RESOLUTION is a perfect blend of suspense and dark comedy, which concludes with perhaps one of the most fantastically meta endings in cinema history. Much like the spectacularly brilliant CABIN IN THE WOODS, this film works best knowing as little as possible about it. I genuinely found myself wondering what the hell was going to happen next and that is a rare feat to accomplish these days. I know it is still early but just like what happened with last year’s second day screening of RABIES, RESOLUTION has easily become my front-runner for best of the fest. I stuck around after the screening to tell that to Aaron personally and he invited me to the bar across the street with the cast and crew of the film. I said I’d come by for a few minutes. 3 hours later I went home.

Lesson of the Day: Apparently you really shouldn’t stop believin’

Jerry Cavallaro – @GetStuck – JerryCavallaro.com

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN – The Review

Marilyn Monroe was a complicated woman. Even today, people struggle to make sense of her life and career. For many, she was merely a starlet, a famous actress and icon with the world wrapped around her finger. They believe she had the perfect life. The truth, however, is the subject of MY WEEK WITH MARILYN. The story revolves around a young man named Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) who wishes to make his own way by breaking into the motion picture business, instead of riding on his father’s success. Colin ventures out to obtain a job — any job will do — with Sir Laurence Olivier’s production company in London. Colin’s timing and youthful determination lands him on the set of THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL. This is how he meets Marilyn Monroe, played by Michelle Williams.

As London prepares for the arrival of the world’s most famous woman, Sir Laurence Olivier, played by Kenneth Branagh, prepares to director and star in a film with the sexiest woman on Earth. Part of him somehow hopes for a flirtatious rejuvenation, despite being married to actress Vivien Leigh of GONE WITH THE WIND, played by Julia Ormond, and Marilyn being on her third marriage, this time to the accomplished playwright Arthur Miller, played by Dougray Scott.

Directed by Simon Curtis, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN is his feature theatrical feature film. Curtis was worked primarily as a producer, and as director of multiple television series and made-for-TV movies. While this may sound like a warning sign for a mediocre movie, the rule does not apply in this case. The film may have a subtle element of melodrama, but is overwhelmingly insightful and uplifting in a non-sappy sort of way.

How does a virtual nobody like Colin Clark fit into the legendary story of Marilyn Monroe? The screenplay is based on the diaries written by Clark during his time with Marilyn, on and off the set of THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, at the time titled THE SLEEPING PRINCE. Colin Clark wrote two books about Marilyn Monroe; “The Prince, The Showgirl and Me” and “My Week With Marilyn.” The interesting dynamic of the relationship between Colin and Marilyn is that, despite her incredible success, talent and fame, she still thought of herself as a regular, flawed person. She was a frightened woman, nervous and paranoid of being abandoned.

These traits come from Marilyn’s troubled and frankly sad childhood. Marilyn was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Rather, she worked very hard for her success, which occurred over time, not overnight. Beginning life as Norma Jean, she invented the persona of Marilyn Monroe, but she would continue to struggle with this throughout her unfortunately short life. Marilyn found it difficult coping with the constant attention as Marilyn, feeling like her own true identity was being held captive beneath the overpowering persona of her own invention. Colin comes into play soon after meeting Marilyn. She seems him as a kindred spirit, a regular guy. She could trust Colin and open up to him. What happens between them is left for you to experience in the film, but it’s the basis of support that triggers their unlikely bond.

Michelle Williams is breathtaking. Not only does she portray Marilyn with stunningly accurate beauty – in appearance, voice and mannerisms – but she captures the conflict so well. Williams’ has tapped into the psyche of Marilyn, allowing MY WEEK WITH MARILYN to humanize the woman Colin calls “a Greek goddess.” Branagh is stellar as Sir Laurence Olivier, a role meant for him alone to play. Branagh gives Olivier a frustrated hilarity, with class and manners, but also shows the temperamental perfectionist behind the camera.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN chronicles many previously unrecognized elements of cinema from that long gone era. The trials and tribulations between Sir Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe working together on a film was a fragile balancing act, bringing two eras of filmmaking together, illuminating the inevitable death of the ways things have been, ushering in the new era of Method acting and the new Hollywood star.

Aside from Williams’ and Branagh’s potentially Oscar-worthy performances, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN also serves up inspired supporting performances from Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike and Emma Watson as Lucy, the young wardrobe worker on set with whom Colin has a romantic interest. In addition to the acting, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN features a soundtrack for the music lover at heart. Conrad Pope provided the rich orchestral original score, while the film also features fabulous pieces of the era from Dean Martin and Nat King Cole. Most impressive is Michelle Williams doing her own singing when Marilyn performs… a treat in and of itself, especially during the “Old Black Magic” performance during the end credits.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN is an enjoyable, well-made movie for anyone who is familiar with the icon and the era to enjoy, but I highly recommend the film to those less familiar with Marilyn, or those who perhaps only see her as the persona and nothing more. For those, the film should hopefully be an eye-opening thrill and a testament to the artist more than her creation alone.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN ‘Heatwave’ Clip


Photo by: Laurence Cendrowicz/ The Weinstein Company

See Michelle Williams dance and sing in one of Marilyn Monroe’s quintessential musical numbers in a new clip from MY WEEK WITH MARILYN.

SYNOPSIS:
In the early summer of 1956, 23 year-old Colin Clark, just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of “THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL”, the film that united Sir Laurence Olivier with Marilyn Monroe, who, whilst shooting, was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Arthur Miller.

Nearly 40 years on, his diary account “THE PRINCE, THE SHOWGIRL AND ME” was published, but one week was missing, and this is the story of that week: an idyll in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of working. When Arthur Miller makes a brief trip to Paris, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce her to some of the pleasures of British life.


Photo by: Laurence Cendrowicz/ The Weinstein Company

The collision of the two worlds – old England and new Hollywood – is as incongruous as it is delightful. Slowly Marilyn begins to shake off the dark fog of insecurity and fear always hovering around her. She reacts with lovely naturalness to this alien world and as she relaxes she offers Colin fleeting insights into her own background – one of family madness, single-minded ambition and uninhibited sexuality. Simply and without self-pity, she relates the tale of her rise to the top in Hollywood; a story involving abuse of one form or another at the hands of almost every man she has ever known, abuse that has left her with only the thinnest of protective layers.

She is not without her contradictions – everyone wants something from her, but she too is fixated on the life she has chosen and is quite unable to leave it, even though the pressure is crushing her…
… and yet, for a moment, lost in the English countryside, it seems she might finally escape.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN will be in theaters November 23rd.

Official Site: http://www.myweekwithmarilynmovie.com/

“Like” the film on Facebook: www.facebook.com/myweekwithmarilyn


Zoe Wanamaker as Paula Strasberg, Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe and Dominic Cooper as Milton Greene in Simon Curtis’s film MY WEEK WITH MARILYN.Photo by: Laurence Cendrowicz/ The Weinstein Company


Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh in Simon Curtis’s film MY WEEK WITH MARILYN. Photo by: Laurence Cendrowicz/ The Weinstein Company

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Clip

In theaters on November 23rd, watch this new clip from MY WEEK WITH MARILYN starring Michelle Williams, Kenneth Brannagh, Eddie Redmayne, Dominic Cooper, and Judi Dench.

SYNOPSIS:
In the early summer of 1956, 23 year-old Colin Clark, just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of “THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL”, the film that united Sir Laurence Olivier with Marilyn Monroe, who, whilst shooting, was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Arthur Miller.

Nearly 40 years on, his diary account “THE PRINCE, THE SHOWGIRL AND ME” was published, but one week was missing, and this is the story of that week: an idyll in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of working. When Arthur Miller makes a brief trip to Paris, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce her to some of the pleasures of British life.

The collision of the two worlds – old England and new Hollywood – is as incongruous as it is delightful. Slowly Marilyn begins to shake off the dark fog of insecurity and fear always hovering around her. She reacts with lovely naturalness to this alien world and as she relaxes she offers Colin fleeting insights into her own background – one of family madness, single-minded ambition and uninhibited sexuality. Simply and without self-pity, she relates the tale of her rise to the top in Hollywood; a story involving abuse of one form or another at the hands of almost every man she has ever known, abuse that has left her with only the thinnest of protective layers.

She is not without her contradictions – everyone wants something from her, but she too is fixated on the life she has chosen and is quite unable to leave it, even though the pressure is crushing her…
… and yet, for a moment, lost in the English countryside, it seems she might finally escape.

Official Site: http://www.myweekwithmarilynmovie.com/

“Like” the film on Facebook: www.facebook.com/myweekwithmarilyn

Magnolia Takes US Rights to Sarah Polley’s TAKE THIS WALTZ

The Wagner/Cuban Company’s Magnolia Pictures announced today they have acquired US rights to TAKE THIS WALTZ, the eagerly anticipated new film written, directed and produced by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and acclaimed actress Sarah Polley. Starring two-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby and Sarah Silverman, TAKE THIS WALTZ is an insightful, sophisticated film about a young woman struggling to choose between a husband that she loves and another man that she has fallen passionately in love with. Magnolia did the deal with TF1 International.

TAKE THIS WALTZ was produced by Susan Cavan along with Sarah Polley, and premiered last month at the Toronto International Film Festival. Michelle Williams plays twenty-eight-year-old Margot, happily married to Lou (Seth Rogen), a good-natured cookbook author. But when Margot meets Daniel (Luke Kirby), a handsome artist that lives across the street, their mutual attraction is undeniable. Warmly human, funny and bittersweet, TAKE THIS WALTZ deftly avoids romantic clichés and paints an unusually true and unsentimental portrait of adult relationships.

Magnolia plans a robust theatrical release in early summer 2012 in all major US markets, bolstered by a prominent film festival presence in regional fests leading up to the release. Additionally, TAKE THIS WALTZ will be distributed through Magnolia’s successful Ultra VOD program.

“With TAKE THIS WALTZ, Sarah Polley has more than lived up to the promise of the wonderful Away From Her, and proven herself a masterful, sensitive chronicler of the human condition,” said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles. “The entire cast is revelatory in unexpected ways and we think audiences will be surprised and delighted by this very special film.”

Said Sarah Polley: “Magnolia has distributed some of my favourite films of the last few years. It is an honour to have our film counted among their incredible list of titles. Their enthusiasm for the film is very exciting and we can’t wait to begin working with them.”

The deal was negotiated for Magnolia by SVP of Acquisitions Dori Begley and Head of Legal and Business Affairs Chris Matson, with Gregory Chambet of TF1 International.

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TakeThisWaltz

About Magnolia Pictures

Magnolia Pictures (www.magpictures.com) is the theatrical and home entertainment distribution arm of the Wagner/Cuban Companies, a vertically-integrated group of media properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban that also includes the Landmark Theatres chain, and the high definition cable network HDNet. Recent releases include Page One: Inside the New York Times, French thriller Point Blank, Blackthorn, starring Sam Shepard as Butch Cassidy, Andrew Jarecki’s All Good Things, and Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love. Magnolia’s upcoming releases include Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia, Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, Mark Pellington’s I Melt With You, The Hunter starring Willem Dafoe, David Gelb’s Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters, The Good Doctor with Orlando Bloom, and many more.

About TF1International

TF1International is the worldwide distribution arm of TF1 Group; one of the leading French media groups; co-investing projects in partnership with UGC.Years after years, TF1 International has developed close partnerships in all areas of the TV and cinema industry, giving the world sales activity a privileged position on the international market place. TF1 International has enjoyed success with La Vie en Rose starring Marion Cotillard, the Oscar®winning actress.  Exciting new projects as Now is good starring Dakota Fanning, Claude Miller’s Thérèse Desqueyroux with Audrey Tautou and Drift, Sam Worthington surf film will share headlines of 2012 line up alongside Take this Waltz.
www.tf1international.com

New Images From MY WEEK WITH MARILYN

I truly hope Michelle Williams doesn’t mind me saying so, but if I wasn’t already smitten for her in the role of Marylin Monroe, I certainly am now after seeing image above. It’s not a sexual thing, well… not entirely. One of the many things I’ve always found fascinating about Marylin is how truly destined for the camera she was. I would even venture so far to say the still camera captured her charming essence of playfully naughty innocence even more perfectly than motion pictures. Each time I see something else surface from this film, I’m that much more intrigued… I just hope it lives up to my own hype.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN had it’s world premiere last night at the Centerpiece Gala of the New York Film Festival.

Simon Curtis has produced and directed numerous British television projects such as Cranford, Hunter (both mini-series) and A Short Stay in Switzerland. MY WEEK WITH MARILYN marks his first theatrical feature.

Michael Musto of The Village Voice on MY WEEK WITH MARILYN:

“I just saw My Week With Marilyn at the New York Film Festival, and it turns out to be a sweet and incisive true story about a production assistant’s interplay with the screen legend during the tumultuous filming of The Prince and The Showgirl. Those expecting a lot of boo-poo-pee-dooing will be deeply disappointed. Williams plays the human side of Marilyn, going for softer, more subtle hues. At the festival, Williams explained that ‘Marilyn Monroe was a character that she played and the image you’re most familiar with. There was a person underneath that.'”

Check out the trailer that debuted last week!

Synopsis:

In the early summer of 1956, 23 year-old Colin Clark, just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of “THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL”, the film that united Sir Laurence Olivier with Marilyn Monroe, who, whilst shooting, was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Arthur Miller.

Nearly 40 years on, his diary account… THE PRINCE, THE SHOWGIRL AND ME was published, but one week was missing, and this is the story of that week: an idyll in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of working. When Arthur Miller makes a brief trip to Paris, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce her to some of the pleasures of British life.

The collision of the two worlds – old England and new Hollywood – is as incongruous as it is delightful. Slowly Marilyn begins to shake off the dark fog of insecurity and fear always hovering around her. She reacts with lovely naturalness to this alien world and as she relaxes she offers Colin fleeting insights into her own background – one of family madness, single-minded ambition and uninhibited sexuality. Simply and without self-pity, she relates the tale of her rise to the top in Hollywood; a story involving abuse of one form or another at the hands of almost every man she has ever known, abuse that has left her with only the thinnest of protective layers.

She is not without her contradictions – everyone wants something from her, but she too is fixated on the life she has chosen and is quite unable to leave it, even though the pressure is crushing her…

… and yet, for a moment, lost in the English countryside, it seems she might finally escape.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN is set to hit theaters on November 4th, 2011.

“Like” the film on Facebook: www.facebook.com/myweekwithmarilyn

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Trailer

Photo Caption: Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark, Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller and Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in Simon Curtis’s film MY WEEK WITH MARILYN. Photo by: Laurence Cendrowicz/The Weinstein Company

This short peak into the film highlights the drama in store, a story that focuses on the inner conflict of Norma Jean and Marylin Monroe, the hidden struggle between keeping up her showbiz persona and losing touch with herself. An array of fine performances are also on display as well, so watch Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in the new My Week With Marilyn trailer!

Synopsis:

In the early summer of 1956, 23 year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’. The film that famously united Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams), who was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Aurthur Miller (Dougray Scott).

Nearly 40 years on, his diary account The Prince, the Showgirl and Me was published, but one week was missing and this was published some years later as My Week with Marilyn – this is the story of that week.  When Arthur Miller leaves England, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce Marilyn to some of the pleasures of British life; an idyllic week in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of work.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN is set to hit theaters on November 4th, 2011.

“Like” the film on Facebook: www.facebook.com/myweekwithmarilyn

Official MY WEEKEND WITH MARILYN Poster

Check out the newly released official poster for Simon Curtis’ MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, starring Michelle Williams as the blond bombshell actress and Hollywood icon. The poster captures the essence of Tinseltown royalty she enjoyed, but ultimately succumbed to in the end, with the contract of her color against the black-and-white background separating her from the crowd. She was just another girl, until she decided to do whatever it took to become somebody.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN is set to hit theaters on November 4th, 2011.

Check Out Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in Simon Curtis’ Film MY WEEK WITH MARILYN


Photo by: Laurence Cendrowicz/ The Weinstein Company

One of my favorite new young actresses is Michelle Williams, a ranking firmly embedded in my psyche after seeing BLUE VALENTINE. As it happens, one of my all-time favorite actresses is Marilyn Monroe. I know, this sounds so typically masculine and shallow, but Monroe was a fascinating woman, an iconic star, and a cultural phenomenon… for better or worse. So, the moment I found our Michelle Williams would be portraying Marilyn Monroe, I had to pinch myself. You can see in the photograph above how strikingly beautiful, and more importantly accurate, her appearance as Monroe will be. The photograph below is newly released, giving one small glimpse into a unique visual style we may expect from the film. If MY WEEK WITH MARILYN carries such a stylistic and bold vision throughout the film, even only in parts, I can’t imagine anything short of a wonderfully enticing slice of historically-based American cinema.

On August 4th, The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced that Simon Curtis’ MY WEEK WITH MARILYN will have its World Premiere as the Centerpiece Gala selection, screening at Alice Tully Hall on Sunday, October 9 for the upcoming 49th New York Film Festival (September 30 – October 16).


Photo Caption: Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark, Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller and Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in Simon Curtis’s film MY WEEK WITH MARILYN. Photo by: Laurence Cendrowicz/ The Weinstein Company

The Weinstein Company, BBC Films and Trademark Films present in association with Lip Sync Productions a Trademark Films production. Release Date: November 4, 2011

Synopsis:

In the early summer of 1956, 23 year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’. The film that famously united Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams), who was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Aurthur Miller (Dougray Scott).

Nearly 40 years on, his diary account The Prince, the Showgirl and Me was published, but one week was missing and this was published some years later as My Week with Marilyn – this is the story of that week. When Arthur Miller leaves England, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce Marilyn to some of the pleasures of British life; an idyllic week in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of work.

MEEK’S CUTOFF – The Review

A staple of many classic western movies is the wagon train. Each wagon’s full of eager settlers about to begin a new life. There was even a TV show called “Wagon Train”. Most times these folks would arrive at their new home on the prairie and put sown stakes. But what happens when they don’t make it to their promised land? The most extreme case maybe the story of the Donner party. Things don’t quite get that desperate in Kelly Reichardt’s new film MEEK’S CUTOFF. but the new West isn’t the utopia depicted in many classic film portrayals. Here, the roughest part of the journey may be the conflicts within this small group.

The first images we see are the three wagons being pulled by their animals while the men and women ( and one young boy) trudge alongside over the barren landscape. Eventually we meet the travelers: newlyweds Thomas and Millie Gately ( Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan ), the White family-Thomas ( Neal Huff ), Glory ( Shirley Henderson ) and their pre-teen son Jimmy ( Tommy Nelson ), and Soloman Tetherow ( Will Patton ) and his much younger second wife Emily ( Michelle Williams ). They are being lead by a scout, Stephen Meek ( Bruce Greenwood ). Although the blustery Meek insists that they are going in the right direction, most of the group believes that they are hopelessly lost and are quickly running out of food and water. The women pressure their husbands to confront Meek, but they cannot bring themselves to it. Tensions mount as they trudge on. One day while gathering firewood, Emily encounters an Indian brave ( Ron Rondeaux ). She alerts the others and soon her husband and Meek ride ahead to capture him before he can contact his tribe. Eventually they return with the battered brave, Meek regales them with tales of his Indian battles and insists that they kill their prisoner. Emily steps forward to spare him, believing that the Indian will lead them to fresh water. Will he bring them to their new home or lead them into a trap?

Reichardt gives this old West tale a somber, quiet almost documentary feel. The desperation and weariness of these settlers seeps off the screen. The actors playing them give great understated performances with Williams standing out as the gutsy Emily. Her best scenes may be the ones opposite the bombastic, egotistical Meek played with gusto ( and an impressive overflowing beard ) by Bruce Greenwood. Like the travelers, we don’t know what his motives are. Reichardt generates a lot of tension in the encounters with the Indian and later in a harrowing scene where the wagons are guided down a steep hill using a crude pulley. Unfortunately the director may be too successful in showing the tedium and drudgery of life in transit over this desolate land. The ending may frustrate you, but you’ll go away with a greater respect for the pioneers you first saw in those old John Ford epics.

Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars