‘Meek’s Cutoff’ review

Director: Kelly Reichardt

Starring: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Dano, Will Patton

5/5 popcorns

Filmmakers are not necessarily territorial artists, but that hasn’t prevented critics and audiences from identifying their favorite directors with their most frequented locations. Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen own New York City, Kevin Smith has New Jersey, Wong Kar-Wai has Hong Kong, and Paul Thomas Anderson is the current king of California.

As those directors have loomed largely in American cinema since their debut features, filmmakers who labor in less familiar parts of the country have gone largely unnoticed. Kelly Reichardt, whose new film ‘Meek’s Cutoff’ was one of the hottest tickets at Sundance, has cemented her reputation as the poet laureate of the Pacific Northwest. 

In ‘Meek’s Cutoff,’ Reichardt returns to Oregon, the setting of her masterpieces ‘Old Joy’ (2006) and ‘Wendy and Lucy’ (2008), but she turns the clock back 165 years in revisiting the sparse and unforgiving Oregon Trail.

Braving the harshness of the trail is a three-family caravan chaperoned by seasoned guide Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood), who has led the party somewhat astray. We do not know how long they have been traveling or where they are headed. The only clear motive that is apparent to the audience is the need to find water, which the families have not stumbled upon for a dangerously long stretch.

Meek’s domineering nature is effective in preventing the men and women from pointing to his errors only until the inclusion of a captured Cayuse Indian (Rod Rondeaux) inspires dissent. The most vocal of the lot, Emily Teatherow (Michelle Williams) eventually tires of Meek’s questionable judgment, but the rest of the group might not be assertive enough to break from Meek’s leash.

With expected grace, Reichardt upends the Western and challenges its mythology in a work that refuses to abide by any of the genre’s traditions and stipulations. Even the setting is radical. Barren yet alluring, the film physically resembles a boxier ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ more closely than anything by the great John Ford. It could even invite stylistic comparisons to Terrence Malick’s masterwork ‘Days of Heaven.’

Those familiar with Reichardt’s style and sensibilities know not to expect shooting or even shouting. Quiet angst permeates every frame, resonating more powerfully than thunderous gunfire. Reichardt fashions a riveting Western without a foreboding violence because the hint of a threat itself is sufficiently suspenseful. Present in every breathtaking frame in the film’s final act is a trove of combustible chemicals, accentuating the intensity of every action.

‘Meek’s Cutoff’ marks Reichardt’s second teaming with Williams, whose performance in ‘Wendy and Lucy’ solidified her standing as one of our pre-eminent actresses. A devastating Academy Award-nominated turn in ‘Blue Valentine’ should usher Williams closer to the forefront, but one cannot fully comprehend the scope of her talent without seeing her in a Reichardt film. Under Reichardt’s guise, Williams projects a unique combination of frustration, anger, sadness and a profound understanding of the world without speaking or batting an eyelash. Reichardt brings out the best in Williams, who returns the favor by perfectly embodying the deceptively complex struggles that define the director’s work.

As in ‘Old Joy’ and ‘Wendy and Lucy,’ Reichardt eloquently explores characters whose vulnerability invites constant trouble, and she loses none of her most identifiable traits in translation to the Western. And the film could not come about at a better time. Over the course of the past month, critics have reveled in proclaiming ‘True Grit’ the best Western since Clint Eastwood’s ‘Unforgiven.’ But the Coen brothers haven’t made the best Western in nearly two decades.

That honor belongs to Reichardt.

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Published on January 26, 2011 at 12:00 pm