Meek's Cutoff

Director: Kelly Reichardt
Writer: Jonathon Raymond
Year of Release: 2010

I'm pretty pleased to see a nice little Western boom (what with True Grit grossing over 170 million in the box office and all...) this year. However fans of the genre may be a little hesitant to march into the theaters to watch Meek's Cutoff. It's stiller-than-Kubrick-and-longer-than-Tarkovsky camera work can be potentially off-putting (and lets face it, if executed poorly, quite pretentious). However Meek's does an adequate job of keeping things moving whilst retaining a more meditative atmosphere, it's mode of story-telling is actually quite reminiscent of Coppola's Godfather's or a handful of Ingmar Bergman's films, in that it utilizes a very straightforward style of direction, cutting/panning only when necessary, a simplistic style which really harmonizes with the nature on screen. This gives way for a nice, tight piece of filmmaking - consistent in plot and character development which does not command your attention, but giving it is surely rewarded.
However this film does come with it's share of gripes. It does take a while to really get going, it dips a few too many times into the area of self-indulgence, and it trades a satisfying ending for artistic integrity (an increasingly popular trend which in all honesty is starting to grind my gears). However these prove to be relatively minor flaws in an overall impressive production.
Fans of the Western may be disappointed as (contrary to the film's poster) few guns are slung in this film, trading bullets for brains (excuse the terribly, terribly crude pun) in this harrowing landscape infested affair, which reflects largely, and weightily, on themes such as human bondage, faith and trust. Although it is the film's emotional capacity which far succeeds it's intellectual breadth. The desperation and hope which is felt manages to touch the viewer on quite a basic, human level. There are a handful of very poignant moments in Meek's Cutoff, moments which resonate with the soul and while perhaps forgotten in memory, manage to instill and glow in spirit. And it is unlikely that any number of (arguably pretentious) allegorical endings will change the indescribably human feeling that arrives when the final frames begin their descent into blackness, and we experience a kind of hurt that we get to stand up and walk out of the theater, intuitively convinced that somewhere in some time, these people still linger on in hope and despair.

Overall rating: 7.9