SHShowcaseDirector: Tommy Lee Jones
France, USA | English
2014 | 122min.
Format: DCP
Theme: V, L, N
18+Nine years after his acclaimed The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Best Actor and Best Screenplay at Cannes 2005), Tommy Lee Jones is again behind the camera for a new, very special Western. The story unfolds in Nebraska, a hard land for men and an heartbreaking one for women who not only have to share with men the hardship of life on the wild frontier, but are often abused by their violent husbands. Mary Bee (Hilary Swank) is a single, strong woman who looks after her land by herself. She is not against marriage, but her strong character has kept potential suitors at a distance. When a minister’s wife from the East (Meryl Streep) offers shelter to three young wives broken by mental illness, no men volunteer to take them on the long and dangerous journey, but Mary steps forward bringing with her an unwilling drifter (Jones) that she saved from lynching. This tragic saga that for once tells the story of the West from a woman’s perspective, is delicately enlightened by grace, poetry and a devilishly twisted, dark sense of humor. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Babel) vividly captures the uncanny beauty of the treeless, parched Nebraska prairie, giving to it a life on its own. All the actresses deliver impressive performances, and Jones once again shines as the rough and rowdy antihero who hides his heart of gold.