Meek's Cutoff

Synopsis: Oregon,1845 and three families from the East: Emily (Michelle Williams) and Solomon Tetherow (Will Patton), Milly and Thomas Gately (Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano) and William and Glory White (Neal Huff and Shirley Henderson) have hired the services of a blow-hard frontiersman, Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood), to guide them across the Cascade Mountains. As their water runs low and it appears that they are lost fear, sets in..

Although Meek’s Cutoff deals with a familiar theme of the Western genre, the trek in covered wagons to new lands,there are no Fordian mythopoetic heroics in Kelly Reichardt’s much more philosophically-inclinededition.

Anyone who has seen Ms Reichardt’s two previous features, Old Joy (2006) and Wendy and Lucy (2009) (both which, like this film were written hy her with Jon Raymond, the latter which starred Williams as Wendy) knows that she likes to keep it real, if not realistic then at least unvarnished by Hollywood gloss.  So it is here. There is a primordial, one might even say Biblical feel to this group of a mere three families crossing the wilderness, one of the wives heavily pregnant, with their meagre possessions and few head of livestock. When they take an American Indian (Rod Rondeaux) captive they are torn between trusting him, their feared enemy, to lead them to water and safety, or retaining their faith in Meeks who advises shooting the “heathen” but who is proving himself progressively less trustworthy.

There is no great moral dilemma here but rather Reichardt focuses on Emily who emerges as the strongest voice amongst the group and favours trusting their captive, in doing so forcing Meek to back down. It’s rather obvious feminist message but at least in terms of plot it is a refreshing change and a beady-eyed Williams is nicely understated in the part (the other two women, however, occupy the traditional roles of mother and hysteric).

Although the film looks splendid thanks to Christopher Blauvelt's cinematography also refreshing is the effort made to achieve authenticity - from the flintlock weaponary to everyone looking as dirty as one would after days tramping through dusty scrubland in the same clothes and the fact that when the men confer at a distance we cannot make out what they are saying. I was less convinced by the night scenes yielding virtually a black screen. Although this does expose the artifice of the traditional Western surely moonlight would have provided more  illumination than we get here.

Despite the grime Meek’s Cutoff is a film of elegant simplicity (well complemented by Jeff Grace’s score) that tells its story with economy and grace. It’s ending however, will frustrate some viewers and I must confess I am amongst them. Not so much for want of a conventional resolution as the fact that given its centrality to the story we deserve to know if Emily’s trust was vindicated or not.

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