Review of Meek's Cutoff (2011) by Alex C — 01 May 2011

"Meek's Cutoff" is a stripped down tale about a group of settlers traveling along the Oregon trail in 1845, as they battle with the harsh conditions of the rugged land. It's a small group: 3 couples, a few kids, and a weary guide played by Bruce Greenwood by the name of Stephen Meek.

Michelle Williams and Will Patton play one of the couples, as the two that the others tend to look up too. The film simply follows their path through the monotonous trek to the Oregon land, and when water becomes sparse, a quite panic becomes to arise.

Meek and Will Patton's character Soloman capture a wandering Indian. Despite Meek's hatred for Indians and wanting to kill him right away, Patton convinces the others to keep the Indian alive so he can help the them find water.

I admired this film, to take on a western with a very limited budget. However, if I wasn't expecting that going into the film, I might not have liked it that much. One would say that the film is slow and hardly not much really happens, and in some sense that's right.

I think I sort of got the overall meaning of the film that director Kelly Reichardt was going for, but only enough to mildly recommend it though. I will say that this film probably won't grab much of an audience.