Movie Review: Meek's Cutoff (2010)

Release Date: 2010
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Writer: Jonathan Raymond
Studio: Evenstar Films
Rating: PG
Run Time: 104 minutes
Setting: Oregon

Plot Summary
A small group of pioneers, making their way across Oregon's High Desert in 1845, become increasingly despondent as confidence in their hired guide Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) erodes. Meek promised the passage would only take a few days, but more than two weeks into the journey the three-wagon caravan is running low on water and hope of reaching the Willamette Valley fades with each creaking turn of the wagon wheels. The monotony of the trek is broken by the appearance of a lone Indian (Rod Rondeaux). The group must decide whether to place their collective fate into the hands of the newcomer, whose origins and intentions are a mystery, or to continue on their current, aimless course.

Review
Based upon a historical wagon train excursion that was led by the real Stephen Meek, Meek's Cutoff is a grandly filmed examination of the desperate circumstances that many naive pioneers found themselves in when placing their fate in the hands of sometimes dubious frontiersmen. Owing to the film's fact-based roots, and because cast member Zoe Kazan is one of my favorite actresses, I had high hopes for Meek's Cutoff. In the end, though, the movie disappointed me on a number of levels.

My greatest disappointment was not so much with the film itself, but of my expectations as to what the film was meant to be. I was expecting a gritty, perhaps even bleak, tale of the rigors faced by those early practitioners of Manifest Destiny. In that regard, the film does deliver. The overall mood is somber and the resigned hopelessness of the three families is adequately conveyed by the cast...though perhaps too adequately. Director Kelly Reichardt injects the audience into a world of hardscrabble, infinite horizons, and never ending weariness by skillfully leveraging the unforgiving location - which in this film is more of a character than a setting - and a script that is short on words but heavy with meaning. The result is a stark portrayal of life on the trail, complete with ceaseless monotony and the grim determination to make it over the next hill. As true to reality as this portrayal may be, the uncomfortably long periods without any dialog or plot development ultimately lose those who view this film expecting to be entertained - like me.

This was kinda how the movie was paced

Tedious as the film is to sit through, Meek's Cutoff does a number of things remarkably well. The authenticity of the costumes and pioneer accoutrements is, with only a handful of exceptions, pleasingly accurate. We even get to see lead actress Michelle Williams step through the loading and firing of a musket not once, but twice. Given the urgency of the situation that prompts her to discharge the firearm, Williams' adherence to the lengthy process definitely heightens the tension of the scene.

The introduction of Rondeaux's character is also handled quite skillfully as well. No subtitles are given when Rondeaux speaks his character's native tongue, leaving the audience just as baffled by his words as the settlers were. Hostile or friendly, his intentions remain a mystery to both the settlers and the viewers. Reichardt and writer Jonathan Raymond have collaborated in the past on films that harbor a socio-politcal message, and Meek's Cutoff is no exception. Although Rondeaux is treated with kindness by some of the settlers, their motivations are purely selfish as they hope to entice him to lead them to precious, life-sustaining water. Racism, and the manipulation of Native Americans by white settlers, are obvious undertones.

Uh oh....

Reichardt also touches on the role of women in frontier life, deliberately lingering on the subservient behavior exhibited by the three female settlers. The way that each of the women instinctively take the oxen reigns from their husbands whenever the caravan would stop and the men would confer with each other is one of the ways that this subtly feminist message is presented to viewers. Several scenes also show the women walking together at the rear of the wagon train, again indicating their subordinate status. In contrast to this routine behavior, Williams' character Emily Tetherow emerges as the de facto leader of the band in her husband's absence. It is she who reacts to the initial contact with the Indian, and her subsequent interactions with him are what prompts him to (possibly) lead the weakened settlers to the water that they desperately need. Another disappointment for me was Zoe Kazan's contribution to the film. She plays the easily spooked, quite possibly simple-minded Mille Gately. Her hysterics were often used in contrast to Williams' level-headedness, but I think Zoe overacted this one just a touch. Pity.

The iconic scene

While the social commentary was presented in a subtle, historically accurate way, the ending of the film was not. No spoilers here, ever, but I will say that the ending of the film left me entirely dissatisfied and with a feeling that I'd just been cheated. Although glacially paced and completely lacking any of the typical Western elements of conflict, Meek's Cutoff does manage to build a significant amount of tension over its runtime and to end the way it does is an insult to those who've invested their time in the film.

Do not view Meek's Cutoff expecting to see something within the normal confines of the Western genre. It certainly has the setting and history to be categorized as such, but Reichardt and Raymond's unorthodox style will leave many fans as distraught as the characters in the film.