The Homesman (2014)

Director Tommy Lee Jones shoots with a steady hand and captures picturesque landscapes in The Homesman, but neither positive aspect can compensate for the unpleasantness of this anti-feminist Western’s story. It starts out promising when the tough homesteader Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) takes on a task that men in her town are unable or unwilling to do: transporting three mentally ill women across dangerous territory to a place where they will receive care. Early on Cuddy finds George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) at the end of a hangman’s noose and rescues him in exchange for his help. She remains an impressive character because she doesn’t take any shit from him. Although somewhere toward the middle, Jones disappoints you by turning the movie into a story about his character instead of Swank’s. Aside from Swank’s committed performance and a delightfully brutal scene involving James Spader, there’s not much to love about this film. Its chronologically disjointed scenes don’t come together cohesively as a narrative and it employs excessive scenes of violent sexual assault to prove a point. The West was a horrible place for women. We get it. (less)