Meek’s Cutoff (2010)

Directed by Kelly Reichardt. Starring Bruce Greenwood, Michelle Williams, Zoe Kazan, Will Patton, Shirley Henderson, Neal Huff, Paul Dano, Rod Rondeaux, Tommy Nelson. [PG]

Austere but quietly engrossing Western recounting a fictionalized version of a real historical incident on the Oregon Trail when guide Stephen Meek (a barely recognizable Greenwood), prone to folksy and rambling speech to disguise his benighted “expertise”, leads his settler party astray, and food and water stores run dangerously low. Photographed primarily in long and medium shots, director Reichardt maintains a dispassionate edge to what could have descended into sweaty, harrowing melodrama, and instead observes the gradual disintegration of trust and faith with keen yet measured interest. The camera lingers in lengthy takes, meticulously capturing the terrible toil of survival in inhospitable terrain while sustaining a train of wagons, and peppering the languidly-paced narrative with fascinating details (e.g., the long and arduous process of loading a rifle under psychological duress). The “natural” lighting in the night scenes results in extended stretches cloaked nearly entirely in darkness: realism at the cost of visual engagement, but the “studied authenticity” works because the viewer’s eyes have already been trained to greedily search the frame. It should be noted, however, that the film will not appease all interested audiences, and those who aren’t pulled into a near-mesmeric trance by the filmmaking style within the first ten or fifteen minutes are likely to find it too slow and uneventful for their tastes.

87/100