The Homesman

He wrote it, he directed it, he plays in it: The Homesman is Tommy Lee Jones’ new movie, nearly ten years after his debut The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.

In west America at the end of the 19^th century, three insane women have to be taken back to a church in east Iowa. The burden of making that dangerous journey falls to Mary Bee Cuddy, a pious, single and strong woman who saves a drifting low-life who goes by the name of George Briggs, forcing him to come along with them.

Beauty, peril and courage are the keywords of this original road trip through the Nebraska territories. This uncommon odyssey allows the spectator to witness wonderful American landscapes as only westerns can promise, especially where Lee Jones’ camera has the intelligence and sensibility of capturing the feeling of wind, the smell of fire and the cold of snow. But most of all, the audience is confronted with a tremendous cast, especially the rapport between Hilary Swank, always impeccable, and Lee Jones, whose very face is an American monument in itself.

Brutality and slowness coexist in the same frame here, everything complex and simple at the same time. They go from place to place but nothing could have predicted their encounter with Indians, a grave, and a rude hotel manager. Lee Jones’ movie is a western but at the same time so much more: it’s a manifesto for strong women and yet expresses a sad kindness towards lost men. It’s slow but never boring, melancholic yet humorous.

The Homesman is a unique experiment, a great moment of cinema.

Liloïe Cazorla

The Homesman is released nationwide on 21^st November 2014.

Watch the trailer for The Homesman here: