Review of The Claim (2000) by Michael M — 20 Oct 2008
This movie, about a man who sells his wife and daughter for titular claim and creates a town which his wife and daughter track him down at years later, while the prospect of a railroad occurs at the same time, went under my radar somehow, but I am glad I caught it on IFC.
This is a great, quiet, character study of a western that works on wuite a few levels. First off, the performances are great, Jovavich especially surprised me, since this is one of the few realistic characters she's ever played.
The music is strangely epic and it works well with the locations of the film and give it a real exploration and conquering feeling for the railroad surveying scenes. And the characters are all developed very well, which is the most important aspect.
By the synopsis, you would think that Mullan's character would be heartles and evil, but he is very understated and you can't help but feel sympathy for him. This goes for nearly all of the principle characters.
They sometimes do awful things, but you can't help but forgive them because it is all so anticlimactic. This may sound negative, but I thought it worked out in a great, original way.
This review of The Claim (2000) was written by Michael M on 20 Oct 2008.
The Claim has generally received positive reviews.
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