Review of The Homesman (2014) by Foxgrove — 26 Nov 2014

Although The Homesman is beautifully crafted with some striking visuals its uneven tone has a detrimental effect on the movie's end result. Things start promisingly as we observe Hilary Swank going about her daily life on the farm, but as soon as she starts trekking across the prairie to Iowa with Tommy Lee Jones and three mad women in tow the interest quickly starts to dissipate. By the end I felt as if I had been on the journey with them and wasn't far off crazy myself. Swank and Jones are a good pairing with the latter providing some fitfully amusing moments. Swank is at her most outstanding in a very moving scene in which she asks Jones to marry her.

Contrary to what the critics have been saying the film is at its best when the surprise exit of a major character allows the film to remove itself from the boredom of the plains. The introduction of other players, notably James Spader (hamming it up deliciously) and Meryl Streep each in their own singular scene, injects some much needed drama into proceedings. This last half hour does, in fact, hint at how good the film could have been had it taken another route.