The Homesman **** (2014, Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank, Grace Gummer, Meryl Streep) – Movie Review

Hilary Swank stars as the plain, pious, independent-minded spinster farmer Mary Bee Cuddy, who volunteers to transport three women driven insane by pioneer life across country by covered wagon in the 1850s, when life is nasty, brutish and invariably short. Tommy Lee Jones also stars as the low-life old drifter George Briggs, a disgraced soldier and claim jumper she happens upon, saves from a hanging, and reluctantly employs to assist her. ‘We make a good team.’ ‘I live, uncommonly, alone.’

The Homesman is a lovely movie with a totally unique, fascinating plot and an effective, grim Western atmosphere. TLJ is just great and so is Hilary Swank – there one heck of a big surprise there that I didn’t see coming!

The Homesman comes complete with nice and tasty cameos from Meryl Streep (as a preacher’s wife), John Lithgow (the reverend), William Fichtner and James Spader. The movie is a beautifully crafted, polished labour of love from star, director and co-writer Jones. And it is gorgeously shot by Brokeback Mountain’s cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. The screenplay is based on the 1988 novel by Glendon Swarthout, six of whose other books have been adapted for the screen, most famously the spring break girls-gone-wild movie Where the Boys Are (1960) and The Shootist (1976) starring John Wayne.

Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto and Sonja Richter make the most of the roles of the madwomen, who have to be driven east from Nebraska to a safe haven in Iowa, from where they can be sent home to be looked after by their families.

For those who are puzzled, The Homesman refers to the job title that Mary Bee Cuddy signs on to perform, carting insane women across the country. And a claim jumper is a person who illegally seizes another’s claim of land, especially for mineral rights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sczb7PJgLtE

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

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