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The Homesman

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The Homesman
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTommy Lee Jones
Written by
  • Kieran Fitzgerald
  • Tommy Lee Jones
  • Wesley Oliver
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyRodrigo Prieto
Edited byRoberto Silvi
Music byMarco Beltrami
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • May 18, 2014 (2014-05-18) (Cannes)
  • November 14, 2014 (2014-11-14) (United States)
Running time
122 minutes[3]
Countries
  • France
  • United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$16 million[4]
Box office$3.44 million[5]

The Homesman is a 2014 French-American period drama film set in the 1850s midwest produced and directed by Tommy Lee Jones and co-written with Kieran Fitzgerald and Wesley Oliver, based on the 1988 novel of the same name by Glendon Swarthout. The film stars Jones and Hilary Swank and also features Meryl Streep, Hailee Steinfeld, John Lithgow, and James Spader.

The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival[6] and received a North American limited release on November 14, 2014 by Roadside Attractions.[7] The Homesman has received mostly positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating average of 7.2/10.

The title refers to the task of taking immigrants back home, which was typically a man's job to carry out.

Plot

Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) is a 31-year-old spinster from New York, a former teacher who journeyed to the Midwest for more opportunity. She is an active member of the small farming community of Loup in the Nebraska Territory, and has significant financial prospects and sizable land ownership. She seems strong and independent, but suffers from depression and isolation after being rejected by several potential husbands for being unattractive and overbearing. She makes dinner for and sings to her neighbor Bob Giffen (Evan Jones), but when she proposes, he turns her down and leaves to find a wife back east.

After a harsh winter, three women from the community begin to show signs of mental instability due to the hardships they have faced. Arabella Sours (Grace Gummer) has lost three children to diphtheria, Theoline Belknapp (Miranda Otto) kills her own child after a poor harvest puts her family at risk of starvation, and Gro Svendsen (Sonja Richter), a Danish immigrant, is shown to be in an abusive relationship with her husband and suffers a breakdown after her mother dies. Reverend Dowd (John Lithgow) calls upon one of their husbands to escort the women eastward to a church in Hebron, Iowa that cares for the mentally ill. One of the men refuses to participate in the lottery to determine who will escort the women; Cuddy takes his place, and the lot falls on her.

While preparing for her journey, Cuddy encounters George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones), a claim jumper, who is about to be lynched for stealing Bob Giffen's land while he is away. Briggs begs Cuddy for help. Scared to make the trip alone, she frees him in return for his help escorting the women. He immediately casts doubt on the job and insists he is free to abandon her at any time. Cuddy tells him that $300 is waiting for him at their destination as a way of persuading him to remain with her as they make the journey.

Briggs's experience comes in handy when the group crosses paths with hostile Indians. Later, when Arabella is kidnapped by a freighter (Tim Blake Nelson), Briggs gives chase, and the two men have a violent scuffle before Arabella kills her kidnapper. Eventually the caravan comes across the desecrated grave of an eleven-year-old girl, and Cuddy insists they stop and restore it. Briggs vows to push on, so Cuddy stays behind and agrees to catch up with him. After restoring the grave, Cuddy sets out on horseback. However, she does not know the way, and after riding all night, she discovers that she has gone in a circle and that her horse has led her back to the grave.

Finally catching up to Briggs after another night of riding, Cuddy, distraught over having to wander the desert, suggests they marry. Briggs, like all the previous men, rejects Cuddy on the grounds that she is too plain and too bossy, but also because he enjoys having no commitments in life. That night, a naked Cuddy propositions him and the two have sex. The next morning, Briggs finds that Cuddy has committed suicide. Briggs chastises Sours, Belknapp, and Svendsen, blaming their illness for Cuddy's death. Briggs buries Cuddy's body and, discovering that she had the $300 with her the entire time, takes a horse and abandons the three women. The trio continue to follow him on foot, and Arabella almost drowns while chasing him across a river. Briggs saves her and decides to take them to Iowa instead.

Briggs seeks food and shelter at a hotel belonging to Aloysius Duffy (James Spader), who informs him that they have no rooms available for the caravan despite the hotel being completely empty. Briggs lashes out at Duffy, whose men pull out guns of their own, resulting in a brief stand-off. Briggs leaves, but returns that night alone on horseback. He sends away the young cook, instructing her not to look back, and sets the hotel on fire. Briggs takes a roasted pig to feed himself and the women and exits the hotel, leaving all inside to be burned alive.

Briggs reaches Hebron, passing the women into the care of Altha Carter (Meryl Streep), the wife of the church's reverend. He informs her of Cuddy's death but does not disclose the true cause. Guilty about having rejected Mary Bee's proposal, he has a wooden slab engraved with her name and plans to mark her grave with it. He proposes to Tabitha Hutchinson (Hailee Steinfeld), a young maid at the hotel he is staying at, who replies by telling him "maybe". He then boards a river ferry heading west, where he meets two musicians and starts to sing. When asked to stop, he chastises the people at the pier for wanting to go to the western territories, calling the west a "goddamn devil". Briggs returns to singing, and as the ferry departs, one of the bargemen kicks Mary Bee's marker into the river.

Cast

Themes

The film shows the unsparingly harsh and difficult life of early settlers of the American Midwest in the 1850s. The Homesman has been called a 'feminist western'. Critics have noted that the lives of women during this time are rarely explored, as opposed to men, while also commenting that women today are still having to balance many roles including the societal pressures for women to be married and have children and to be perfect wives and mothers.[8][9]

Score

The music by Marco Beltrami has received praise from critics. The score emphasizes the use of wind sounds to show how early settlers had to endure the constant wind without solid shelter, which imitates the character themes of being mentally undone by the elements that surround them. Beltrami used inventive measures such as using a "wind piano". Beltrami said the goal was to take the "warmth" out of the sound to dissipate the air.[10]

Release

Director and cast at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival

The Homesman premiered on May 18, 2014, in competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The film also was screened at the 2014 Telluride Film Festival, and the AFI Film Festival, among others. Saban Entertainment bought the film after Cannes for release, with Roadside Attractions joining to distribute the film in the U.S. EuropaCorp will distribute abroad.[11] The film was limited-released in the United States on November 14, 2014, with plans to expand over following months.[12][13]

Critical response

The Homesman has received mostly positive reviews from critics. With particulars standing out being Swank's performance, the cinematography, score, and costumes. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an 82% approval rating based on 136 reviews, with a rating average of 7.2/10. The site's consensus: "A squarely traditional yet somewhat progressive Western, The Homesman adds another absorbing entry to Tommy Lee Jones' directorial résumé".[14] Metacritic gave the film a score of 68/100 based on 43 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews.[15]

Betsy Sharkey with the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Swank and Jones, in particular, are a very good odd couple, playing saint and sinner, sometimes reversing the roles. What the directing side of Jones does best is to cede the spotlight to his star. He builds a strong platform for Swank to take on yet another woman who refuses to be bound by gender conventions".[16]

Andrew O'Hehir with Salon wrote: "Swank gives a magnificent performance as a woman whose calm and capable exterior cannot completely conceal her worsening desperation. In its unsentimental poetry, its stripped-down imagery and its unforgettable lead performances, 'The Homesman' is a ruthless western classic . . . cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s harsh, horizontal landscapes—like the haunting, unsettling score by Marco Beltrami—are anything but picturesque and reassuring, and serve to support a strikingly bleak portrait of life on the 19th-century American frontier".[17]

Claudia Puig with USA Today wrote: "Set on the Great Plains in the mid-1800s, 'The Homesman' aims for a story that's poignant and told sparely, but comes across as mawkish, tedious and self-indulgent. Swank brings a gravitas to her character that is undermined when some of her antics are played for laughs. In a 10-minute cameo, Meryl Streep's character is more fully developed than any of the leads' roles. The story attempts to show how hard it was for women in the Old West, but it ends up being Jones' surly show".[18]

Accolades

List of accolades received by The Homesman

Year Award Category Recipient(s) and Nominee(s) Result
2014 2014 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or Tommy Lee Jones Nominated
Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards Best Actress Hilary Swank Nominated
Best Actor Tommy Lee Jones Nominated
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards Best Actress Hilary Swank Runner-up
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards Best Actress Hilary Swank Nominated
Phoenix Critics Circle Awards Best Actress Hilary Swank Nominated
Women Film Critics Circle Best Movie About Women Nominated
Best Male Images in a Movie Nominated
Best Actor Tommy Lee Jones Nominated
Courage in Acting Award Hilary Swank Nominated
The Invisible Woman Award Hilary Swank Nominated
Best Ensemble (Women's Work) Won
World Soundtrack Awards Film Composer of The Year Marco Beltrami Nominated
International Film Music Critics Association Composer of the Year Marco Beltrami Nominated
Best Original Score for a Drama Marco Beltrami Won
2015 Western Heritage Award Outstanding Theatrical Motion Picture The Javelina Film Company and Itacha Films Won
Spur Award Best Western Drama Script Tommy Lee Jones, Kieran Fitzgerald, Wesley A. Oliver Won
2015 Gradiva® Award (NAAP) Best Film Director Tommy Lee Jones Nominated: winner to be announced November 14, 2015

References

  1. ^ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cannes-tommy-lee-jones-homesman-705278
  2. ^ http://deadline.com/2014/05/cannes-saban-acquired-north-american-rights-to-tommy-lee-jones-the-homesman-734483/
  3. ^ "THE HOMESMAN (15)". British Board of Film Classification. August 26, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  4. ^ http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Homesman-The#tab=summary
  5. ^ "The Homesman (2014)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
  6. ^ "2014 Official Selection". Cannes. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  7. ^ Cambridge Film Festival
  8. ^ http://thelmadams.com/wordpress/2014/11/16/interview-hilary-swank-stands-tall-dives-deep-discussing-the-homesman/ accessed 11/18/2014
  9. ^ http://www.laweekly.com/publicspectacle/2014/11/20/the-biggest-outdoor-wind-harp-in-malibu accessed 11/23/14
  10. ^ http://www.npr.org/2014/11/22/365691849/in-the-homesman-wind-is-the-sound-of-insanity accessed 11/23/14
  11. ^ "Cannes Film Festival: Official Selection Lineup Announced". Variety. April 17, 2014. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
  12. ^ http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/arthouse-audit-foxcatcher-strong-rosewater-so-so-the-homesman-modest-20141116 accessed 11/18/14
  13. ^ Fleming, Mike (February 18, 2014). "Saban Films, Roadside Take Cannes Pic 'The Homesman'". Deadline.com. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
  14. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_homesman/?search=the%20homesman accessed 12/14/14
  15. ^ http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-homesman accessed 12/14/2014
  16. ^ http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-homesman-review-20141114-column.html? accessed 11/18/14
  17. ^ http://www.salon.com/2014/11/14/the_homesman_tommy_lee_jones_and_hilary_swank_are_unforgettable_in_a_ruthless_classic_western/ accessed 11/18/14
  18. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2014/11/13/the-homesman-review/18102017/ accessed 11/18/14
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