Delayed Reaction: Meek's Cutoff

The Pitch: Oregon Trail: The movie.

A group of settlers get lost on the last leg of the Oregon Trail and travel for weeks in search of water.

This has to be the quietest, most patient Western ever made, or at least of the ones I've seen (a much smaller subset). This film is based on the first journey on the trail that became known as Meek Cutoff. It was a particularly difficult hike through the Oregon High Desert that cost many people their lives. Director Kelly Reichardt turned that into a film that, as promised, is 100 minutes of people slowly walking around looking for water. I liked this as an experiment, but it is a really slow movie. People don't talk a lot either. When they do, you sometimes can't even make out what they are saying.

I like the cast a lot. Bruce Greenwood is unrecognizable under a giant beard. I kept expecting him to be comic relief because of how he looked. He's not the most composed character, but I wouldn't say he's a source of much comedy. Michelle Williams is good in everything and she gets the signature moment in the movie (the one on the poster). Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan don't have much to do. I kept waiting for Dano to turn into his preacher character from There Will Be Blood. Sadly, he did not. I like seeing real-life couples on screen together though. It's fun to see if that chemistry translates to the screen. In Dano and Kazan's case, not so much, although this isn't a movie that would know what to do with any on-screen chemistry anyway.

The ending took me by surprise. It's pretty abrupt and not very conclusive. For anyone who is watching this and only putting up with the slow trudge in hopes of it paying off at the end: prepare to be disappointed. The ending has grown on me now that I've had time to digest it. I'm sure it'll play better when I know it's coming  if I watch this again ever.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend