Meek's Cutoff

(Glory White) Shirley Henderson ,(Millie Gately) Zoe Kazan and Emily Tetherow (Michelle Williams)
wait for their husbands to decide the course of action

I have been wanting to see the Kelly Reichardt Western Meek's Cutoff for an absolute age, and just managed to squeeze in an afternoon's showing of it at Theatre Clwyd yesterday.
I was so glad that I did,, for it is a slow burn of a movie which draws the audience in at the oh-so-slow pace of a wagon being drawn across the Oregon desert in 1845.
For the majority of the movie the story of the ponderous yet tense trek of three families who have put their trust in a mountain man who has stated he knows a quick way to the promised land of the West, is centred around the visually claustrophobic views of the esentially lost characters.
As the inside view of the covered wagon canopys  obscure the prairie view, the camera shots mirror the blinkered views from under the women's bonnetts and as the characters struggle with the terrible hardships of fatigue,low morale,hunger and doubt, for the most part in near silence, the audience is witness to a dreadfully tense and austere tale which is so different to the more garralous and traditional Westerns we have all become accostomed to.
Despite the sparse verbal interaction between the characters, the performances in Meek's Cutoff are exemplary

Michelle Williams is especially good as the strong willed and self contained
 Mrs Tetheroe,who alone challenges their guide's assertion that he knows the 
right way to go.

Through some subtle physical acting rather than any speeches, she perfectly portrays
the grim determination and acceptance of her role as a women that her character
is forced to possess.
Will Patton underplays her husband, the measured Solomon Tetheroe ,with skill and 
Scottish actress Shirley Henderson is a real stand out as the devout and nervous 
Glory White.

Like I said, for some the slow, almost unbearable pace of the is movie will put some 
off it,but for me, the long interchanging tableau's of  lost, tired settlers crossing
the faceless prairie was a stunning cinematic experience.
9/10