Wind River Review
Wind River is a 2017 investigative crime drama written and directed by Taylor Sheridan with his big screen directorial debut. Sheridan previously wrote both the excellent Sicario from 2015 and the critically acclaimed Best Picture nominee Hell or High Water from last year.
Story
In the impoverished Indian Reservation of Wind River Wyoming, Wildlife Service agent Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) is called into hunt and kill a family of mountain lions that have been eating the residents' livestock. However, during his tracking expedition he discovers the dead body of a Native girl miles away from any from any sign of civilization in the freezing cold woods. Because this reflects the similarly mysterious death of his daughter, Lambert joins the posse which includes an inexperienced FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) in order to hunt down the killer and get some long overdue closure for the unavenged death of his daughter.
The themes of the film are interesting, but bleak as hell. I like that one of the major themes is parenthood, a subject that isn't often explored in film anymore. However, it's explored in the context of a parent dealing with the unique grief of losing their child rather than having to take care of one like in other films that explore the concept. Probably the most depressing theme of all is the one that Lambert explains in a monologue about dealing with pain: you just have to accept it and let it change you. The world is harsh and cruel and the only thing you can do is get tough enough to survive it. I can't say I completely disagree with that or that you're going to completely agree with it, but it's an interesting new perspective to take a look at and mentally chew on, so that's something at the very least. There's also some commentary in the film about the harshness of the frontier vs the ease of the rest of the civilized world. Lambert, who has lived in and around the reservation his entire life, is much more prepared and able to endure the harshness of the elements and the evil that surrounds the investigation than Agent Banner, who was born and raised in the cushiness of the city
The characters are interesting, complex and sympathetic, pretty much the three peat for writing good characters. Lambert's struggle to find catharsis for the murder of his daughter, make a meaningful connection with his estranged son and and just generally find peace with himself is compelling and even relatable depending on how much crap you've been put through in your life. FBI agent Banner is a bit more relatable to a normal audience in that she's completely out of her depth and utterly underprepared to deal with something as dark and disturbing as the case which she finds herself attached to.
The screenplay is good for the most part, especially the previously mentioned monologue by Lambert about dealing with grief. However, the screenplay too often repeats information we already know or says things that could've/should've been explained visually. I suppose the former could be forgiven because it could be going for realism. The characters aren't going to know everything the audience knows, so one character might have to repeat something he already said to a different character. This is fine in the world of the movie, but I think there should've been a way to get across information without having to do it twice because repetition of something we already know is annoying for the audience. However, the explanation of something that should've been shown visually has no excuse. In a visual medium you're supposed to show things visually. For example, Agent Banner is looking at a drawing by Lambert's daughter. It has her name at the bottom, letting the audience know whose it is. Only a few seconds later, though, while the audience is still looking at it, Lambert comes up and explains that it was hers that she drew for school. Why was that necessary? We already got all the information we needed from the camera, so why vocally explain what you should've just left as an image?
Technical
Now I know what you're thinking: "Wow, this film sounds really depressing and grim. Why should I go to see this?" Well, you should go to see it because it's a well-crafted film and too many genuinely well-made movies get pushed aside for the competent, but not all that impressive, blockbusters. It's like the Mona Lisa not getting any attention because it was right next to a child's finger-painting that happened to have brighter colors.
The cinematography is incredibly impressive, with grand shots that make the icy, nut-freezing wilderness of Wyoming looking beautiful and fragile.
The mood is helped a lot by the near constant presence of grey lighting, encapsulating the whole film in a moody, drab air of ever present melancholy, like an insulated, very depressing blanket. I think the entire thing must've been color corrected during because almost everything within the frame is tinged with a grey hue no matter what color it is.
The acting is impressive all around; Elizabeth Olsen portrays her character's naivety with ease and the First Nation actors all hold their own with their big time counterparts. I think the most captivating performance of the film might be Gil Birmingham who plays the dead girl's father, giving a nuanced performance which switches between quiet melancholy, weeping depression and angry defiance of the inevitable smoothly. However, the real surprise of the entire cast is Jeremy Renner. The only other thing I'd ever seen him in up to this point was the Avengers movies and now I'm kind of wondering why. He has a set of previously un-shown dramatic acting chops which I don't understand why he's kept dormant for so long. He manages to capture and portray his character's silent depression and desire for vengeance without ever missing a beat.
One undeniably bad thing on the technical side is the score. For the most part it's not terrible; it's haunting and tense when necessary. However, sometimes they'll actually have words in the music. And they're not singing either; somebody is just talking while the music is playing. I think it's supposed to be like solemn Native chanting, but instead it comes across like what they did with the Electro song in Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Other
There's one more thing I want to address and it comes in right at the end of the movie (don't worry, this is spoiler free). At the end of the film there's a grim statistic thrown in about how there are no records kept for Native women and how nobody knows how many are truly missing. This is certainly a real world gut punch after the harsh, depressing fictional story we just saw go down. However, this feels unbelievably tacked on and could've been much more useful as a main part of the plot. Like maybe Lambert could've found clues that lead to a conspiracy with even more missing girls, but when he goes to check for records of the girls he finds nothing at all. That would've been a better use of what appears to be the whole drive that Sheridan had for making this movie, but then again it would've spoiled the whole small scale feel and would've undermined the other point of the story: that the world is harsh and unforgiving for absolutely no reason except it just is. There's not big conspiracy to screw with you, no diabolical villain making life purposefully difficult for everybody else. There's just our little broken world that we've been stuck with living in.
Summary: Wind River is a good film that should've been great. It's still got solid characters, good pacing and great tension, but I feel like in the hands of a more experienced director all of these good elements could've been amplified to greatness. I suppose my feelings on the film are due to me comparing it to Sicario, which in recent years has become one of my favorite movies, and I was expecting something much grittier and intense than what I got. However, what I got is still a masterfully crafted work of cinema and easily one of the best movies of the year.
B+
Story
In the impoverished Indian Reservation of Wind River Wyoming, Wildlife Service agent Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) is called into hunt and kill a family of mountain lions that have been eating the residents' livestock. However, during his tracking expedition he discovers the dead body of a Native girl miles away from any from any sign of civilization in the freezing cold woods. Because this reflects the similarly mysterious death of his daughter, Lambert joins the posse which includes an inexperienced FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) in order to hunt down the killer and get some long overdue closure for the unavenged death of his daughter.
The themes of the film are interesting, but bleak as hell. I like that one of the major themes is parenthood, a subject that isn't often explored in film anymore. However, it's explored in the context of a parent dealing with the unique grief of losing their child rather than having to take care of one like in other films that explore the concept. Probably the most depressing theme of all is the one that Lambert explains in a monologue about dealing with pain: you just have to accept it and let it change you. The world is harsh and cruel and the only thing you can do is get tough enough to survive it. I can't say I completely disagree with that or that you're going to completely agree with it, but it's an interesting new perspective to take a look at and mentally chew on, so that's something at the very least. There's also some commentary in the film about the harshness of the frontier vs the ease of the rest of the civilized world. Lambert, who has lived in and around the reservation his entire life, is much more prepared and able to endure the harshness of the elements and the evil that surrounds the investigation than Agent Banner, who was born and raised in the cushiness of the city
The characters are interesting, complex and sympathetic, pretty much the three peat for writing good characters. Lambert's struggle to find catharsis for the murder of his daughter, make a meaningful connection with his estranged son and and just generally find peace with himself is compelling and even relatable depending on how much crap you've been put through in your life. FBI agent Banner is a bit more relatable to a normal audience in that she's completely out of her depth and utterly underprepared to deal with something as dark and disturbing as the case which she finds herself attached to.
The screenplay is good for the most part, especially the previously mentioned monologue by Lambert about dealing with grief. However, the screenplay too often repeats information we already know or says things that could've/should've been explained visually. I suppose the former could be forgiven because it could be going for realism. The characters aren't going to know everything the audience knows, so one character might have to repeat something he already said to a different character. This is fine in the world of the movie, but I think there should've been a way to get across information without having to do it twice because repetition of something we already know is annoying for the audience. However, the explanation of something that should've been shown visually has no excuse. In a visual medium you're supposed to show things visually. For example, Agent Banner is looking at a drawing by Lambert's daughter. It has her name at the bottom, letting the audience know whose it is. Only a few seconds later, though, while the audience is still looking at it, Lambert comes up and explains that it was hers that she drew for school. Why was that necessary? We already got all the information we needed from the camera, so why vocally explain what you should've just left as an image?
Technical
Now I know what you're thinking: "Wow, this film sounds really depressing and grim. Why should I go to see this?" Well, you should go to see it because it's a well-crafted film and too many genuinely well-made movies get pushed aside for the competent, but not all that impressive, blockbusters. It's like the Mona Lisa not getting any attention because it was right next to a child's finger-painting that happened to have brighter colors.
The cinematography is incredibly impressive, with grand shots that make the icy, nut-freezing wilderness of Wyoming looking beautiful and fragile.
The mood is helped a lot by the near constant presence of grey lighting, encapsulating the whole film in a moody, drab air of ever present melancholy, like an insulated, very depressing blanket. I think the entire thing must've been color corrected during because almost everything within the frame is tinged with a grey hue no matter what color it is.
The acting is impressive all around; Elizabeth Olsen portrays her character's naivety with ease and the First Nation actors all hold their own with their big time counterparts. I think the most captivating performance of the film might be Gil Birmingham who plays the dead girl's father, giving a nuanced performance which switches between quiet melancholy, weeping depression and angry defiance of the inevitable smoothly. However, the real surprise of the entire cast is Jeremy Renner. The only other thing I'd ever seen him in up to this point was the Avengers movies and now I'm kind of wondering why. He has a set of previously un-shown dramatic acting chops which I don't understand why he's kept dormant for so long. He manages to capture and portray his character's silent depression and desire for vengeance without ever missing a beat.
One undeniably bad thing on the technical side is the score. For the most part it's not terrible; it's haunting and tense when necessary. However, sometimes they'll actually have words in the music. And they're not singing either; somebody is just talking while the music is playing. I think it's supposed to be like solemn Native chanting, but instead it comes across like what they did with the Electro song in Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Other
There's one more thing I want to address and it comes in right at the end of the movie (don't worry, this is spoiler free). At the end of the film there's a grim statistic thrown in about how there are no records kept for Native women and how nobody knows how many are truly missing. This is certainly a real world gut punch after the harsh, depressing fictional story we just saw go down. However, this feels unbelievably tacked on and could've been much more useful as a main part of the plot. Like maybe Lambert could've found clues that lead to a conspiracy with even more missing girls, but when he goes to check for records of the girls he finds nothing at all. That would've been a better use of what appears to be the whole drive that Sheridan had for making this movie, but then again it would've spoiled the whole small scale feel and would've undermined the other point of the story: that the world is harsh and unforgiving for absolutely no reason except it just is. There's not big conspiracy to screw with you, no diabolical villain making life purposefully difficult for everybody else. There's just our little broken world that we've been stuck with living in.
Summary: Wind River is a good film that should've been great. It's still got solid characters, good pacing and great tension, but I feel like in the hands of a more experienced director all of these good elements could've been amplified to greatness. I suppose my feelings on the film are due to me comparing it to Sicario, which in recent years has become one of my favorite movies, and I was expecting something much grittier and intense than what I got. However, what I got is still a masterfully crafted work of cinema and easily one of the best movies of the year.
B+
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