Review: Wind River đź‘Ť
Our year started off strong in terms of the Sneak Preview with Wind River [IMDb, Trailer (YouTube)], Taylor Sheridan’s second movie. While it originally premiered at the Sundance festival a year ago, it only now slowly arrives in cinemas here in Germany.
The most prominent feature of this movie are the wide snow-covered plains and mountains of the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) knows every corner of this vast, forlorn region due to his job as hunter for the Fish and Wildlife Service and his distant Indian heritage. While out on a hunting trip, he discovers the body of a young women, frozen solid in the snow miles away from any human settlement. To make things even worse, he recognizes her as Natalie, the daughter of his native American friends Martin and Annie, who live in the reservation.
The tribal police enlists the help of the FBI, because they don’t have the jurisdiction to handle homicides. Historically, the support of the FBI has been less than forthcoming, so nobody is surprised when agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) shows up alone, without any backup on the way and very ill equipped for an investigation in a rising snow storm. After a first assessment of the crime scene, agent Banner launches an investigation to find out who raped and murdered Natalie. Due to her very limited resources, she must rely on the 4 officers of the local tribal police and on Cory, who left an impression when he reconstructed for her the last moments of the victim’s life only by looking at the tracks in the snow.
As the story continues, it becomes more and more apparent, how emotionally invested Cory is, who had lost his teenage daughter three years ago and lives separated from her mother since. Agent Banner meanwhile is constantly pushed to her limits as she has no experience in dealing with native Americans and the dire situation many of them in the reservation are in. The investigation leads Banner, Cory and tribal police chief Ben (Graham Greene) to the shabby hut of three quite infamous characters. At some point the security team of the local oil mining company becomes involved as well.
This is without a doubt a really good movie. There are so many things that are woven together into a thrilling story about one of the US’ most remote and hostile, but also hauntingly beautiful, areas, its inhabitants and their struggles. Jeremy Renner — who ist mostly known for his grumpy portrayal of Hawkeye — quite convincingly gives a lot of depth to his emotionally shaken character, who barely manages to hold on to his calm facade. Elizabeth Olsen supports this very well by providing the counterpart as a young agent, who is in over her head, valiantly tries to make the best of a bad situation and genuinely wants to help. The canvas for their performances is created from snow, impressive mountain ranges and serene tracking shots passing over the countryside. The silence and loneliness of the place are conveyed impressively well to the viewer and play a vital role for the story and the overall mood of the film.
I cannot write about this movie without mentioning that it is always difficult to include rape as a topic in what essentially is supposed to be entertainment. It becomes even more complicated, when it is not only mentioned, but actively included in the screenplay. I do believe that this movie’s message is stronger because of it, but it might be a little too much for some viewers. But back to the what the movie wants to tell us: Just before the credits roll, it points out that it is based on the bitter reality that there are no criminal statistics about missing native Americans and that the jurisdiction in the Indian reservations is still so complicated that many criminals go unpunished.
A sad and cruel reality is not exactly the most pleasant of topics and this movie is most certainly not a happy one. It is, however, a really well made one. Taylor Sheridan does not only deliver his message, but wrapped it into a level-headed thriller without any fluff that is absolutely worthy of your time.
