Meek's Cutoff - 2010 - 4 Stars

Director: Kelly Reichardt
Cast: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Dano

It's hard to write about plotless movies, without feeling like you are spoiling the whole movie, if you mention a kernel of the narrative like "two men named Gerry get lost while hiking" it feels like you told them the whole story. If you say "nothing happens" the viewer is prepared for nothing to happen. Meek's Cutoff isn't Koyaanisqatsi, but for the sake of not giving away too much, all I will say about the plot is that it follows a group of settlers on the Oregon Trail looking for water.

My knowledge of The Oregon Trail stops at the video game, so I can't speak with authority about Meek's Cutoff's verisimilitude, but it does feel real. I have always been fascinated with the minutia of history, but most of the details in historical fiction are reductive and touristy, "oh look at that grog of mead, how quaint". Meek's Cutoff presents a brutal, stunning portrait of how tough it must have been to be an early settler travelling on the Oregon Trail. The premise of needing to find water creates urgency, but is also a nice historical detail, people needed to carry around weeks worth of water in covered wagons, when travelling undeveloped land. Most of the film's verisimilitude comes from showing the daily monotony of these settlers and while watching longshots of pioneers walking next to covered wagons seems boring, the cinematography is awe-inspiring.

For full disclosure, I received an important phone call halfway through the movie and the opinion expressed below might be a function of my fragmented viewing. The first half of the movie is a hypnotic look at the day to day life for these people travelling along The Oregon Trail it was as beautiful meditative experience that reminded me of the best parts of 2001 or Tree of Life. The second half wasn't nearly as strong, Michelle Williams anachronistic character was too empowered for a 19th century women and that caused me to doubt the characterization of others in the film. I think the blustery xenophobia shown by Bruce Greenwood's Stephen Meek was on point, but next to Williams he felt like a strawman created by Reichardt. The above makes it seem like the second half of the movie is bad, it's not. The second half has two excellent set pieces, the cinematography and period detail remain excellent and the ending is something that will and should prompt lots of discussion.

Stray thoughts
-I remember reading an interview with a Deadwood cast member, who was asked to describe the set, he responded with one word "mud", I suspect the cast of Meek's Cutoff would respond with one word "dust"