Meek's Cutoff

Kelly Reichardt's previous two films, Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy, would be charitably called deliberate, and uncharitably, slow. Meek's Cutoff does not see a change of style, although it is a period piece, and for all intents and purposes is in the wide category called the Western. But it's on a very small scale, concerning itself with only nine characters, and has less to do with the American West than with a struggle against nature and the instincts of survival.

Three couples, one with a child, are making their way west on the Oregon Trail in 1845. They have hired a frontiersman, the title character, to guide them. But he does not inspire confidence, especially after he takes them off the main trail and into the Great Basin, the large desert of Utah and Nevada. Soon the settlers find themselves short on water, and Meek doesn't seem to have a clue what to do, especially after they come across the Great Salt Lake, which has abundant but useless water.

This occupies the first third of the film, and I was getting more than a little restless. The old metaphor, "like watching grass grow" came to mind. But things get interesting when a lone Indian is captured by Meek and the de facto leader of the settlers (Will Patton). Meek is all for killing him, but Patton reasons that he would know where water is, so they trade him a blanket for his knowledge. The Indian, though, knows no English, and none of them speak his language (another delinquency of Meek's) so they follow him, not knowing what he is leading them to.

I found this all very intriguing, as the setters, namely Patton and his wife (the great Michelle Williams) seem to trust their own humanity over Meek's warnings. One of the other women (Zoe Kazan), becomes hysterical in her fear of the Indian, and her husband (Paul Dano) vacillates between the two emotions.

But here's the thing--Reichardt leaves us hanging. I won't go too far in describing the ending, but it reminded me of John Sayles' Limbo, in that an audience member is likely to watch the screen go dark and the credits roll with an "Aaah!" I admire the artistic nature of the choice, but damn it I wanted a real ending.

As I watched the film, I realized I recognized the voice of who played Meek (he's covered in shaggy hair and beard) and only learned it was Bruce Greenwood at the end. Also in the cast was English actress Shirley Henderson, probably best known to American audiences as Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter series.

Reichardt is a minimalist filmmaker, and with that comes good things and not so good things. I believe only natural light is used, which gives the night scenes an extra feeling of danger, and as I said, her editing (she is also the editor) is deliberate. For example, when Williams first sees the Indian she fires two warning shots to draw the men back to camp. We see her as she loads a single-shot rifle, fire it, then load a second shot, and fire it, too. I would guess that most directors wouldn't include the entire loading sequence in the scene, for better or worse.