Review of Meek's Cutoff (2011) by Kyle G — 23 May 2012

There's stasis here, a sense of lonely impossibility, of being cut off and insecure and lost. "1845 Oregon" is all we're told on the title card, and most of what we see is just a train of desperate travelers. But what I find most fascinating about Meek's Cutoff is its theme of attention: in terms of waiting/attending, but also in philosophical terms, phenomenological terms -- attention as in where to put your eyes, what to focus on, how, why... in attention's very payment.

A clash between certainty and inscrutability erupts, shown in (through what is practically the film's only audible dialogue) thick-tongued Bible verses, hackneyed frontier folktales, or vulgar anti-Indian gossip + in (by utility) the squared-off, constricted frame of Reichardt's camera. The main conflict is between Emily Tetherow (Michelle Williams) and Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood). Theirs is, to me, a play on gender at the root of all American life: the perspective of unknowing, shadowy, innocent women vs. that of arrogant, vainglorious men. "We're not lost -- we're just finding our way," Meek reassures one woman, and his faith is stunning to behold.