Review of The Homesman (2014) by Tom L — 06 Dec 2014

Jones and Swank are wonderful as ever and some of the smaller parts played by John Lithgow, Haille Steinfeld, Tim Blake Nelson, and especially James Spader and Meryl Streep are great. Streep actually gets to work with her daughter, Grace Gummer, for a scene and Grace is just powerful with little to no dialogue showing us talent runs in her family.

The other crazy ladies Miranda Otto and Sonja Richter are great as well. The movie is a slow one but towards the second half the focus turns from Swank to Jones and it actually gets a little more in speed.

Jones' direction is great as is the cinematography capturing the great landscapes they travel through. The costumes and make up are also well done. There were times my attention span dipped and there were times where some scenes just happened in like less than a minute and didn't seem to have a flow but that only last in the first half.

Swank has been talked about for a nomination during award season and I feel like the focus shift that happens in the middle of the movie might hurt her chances but she has a few powerful scenes. I for one love this new revamp of the Western genre with the remake of True Grit and want to see more of these movies made.

Jones has this great wit to him that even in such a darker movie as in this one, he brings some nice laughs that are well needed after some really depressing scenes. If you're a fan of Jones and Swank, definitely go see this but don't expect a feel good movie.