Film review
TV3’s movie expert Kate Rodger has high expectations for this murder mystery set in the depths of a Wyoming winter – so does it deliver?
I couldn’t help wishing for more.
Wind River
Starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen. Written and directed by Taylor Sheridan.
When he’s not mixing it with his other Marvel mates, actor Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker/Captain America: Civil War) likes to remind us he was nominated for an Oscar by taking on more challenging roles.
Wind River is one of those roles.
The writer of the excellent Sicario and the equally unmissable Hell or High Water, Taylor Sheridan, has a crack at directing his own material this time, and while it’s nowhere near as good a film as it could have been, it’s still a good watch.
Sheridan buries us in a very different setting here – the deep, bleak Wyoming snow. It’s an unforgiving landscape and for the people who live there the winter is often just a question of survival.
Renner is Cory Lambert, a hunter contracted to protect the local stock from wolves and mountain lions. He’s good at his job. On a day like any other, on a routine hunt at the nearby tribal reservation, Cory doesn’t find a predator, he finds its prey, the frozen body of a local girl. It’s very clear very quickly that she did not die from natural causes.
Cory’s next hunting expedition will be to find the girl’s killer.
Fellow Avenger Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene/Captain America: Civil War) is rookie FBI agent Jane Bonner. Diverted from far warmer climes, she arrives from Las Vegas to investigate the murder, but is left out in the cold, literally and figuratively, when it comes to local knowledge. She knows the only chance she has of solving the case will be with Cory’s help.
As with Sicario, Sheridan delivers us another strong, flawed female character with Olsen’s Jane Banner. Unlike Sicario, where we really get under the skin of Emily Blunt’s Kate Macer, we don’t get the same opportunity here and it’s a damn shame.
Renner’s role is more generously rendered, but even his story could have benefited from a lighter touch and a heavier heart. His past, his grief, his struggle for survival, it’s rich for the plunder and, while there are moments of emotional traction, I couldn’t help wishing for more.
I settled into Wind River with high expectations fuelled by two gripping trailers and good reviews out of both Sundance and Cannes (where it got a rare standing ovation). Those high expectations weren’t delivered on, to be sure, but this is by no means a waste of your valuable time. Both Renner and Olsen are very watchable, the story certainly keeps the audience guessing, and those of you fond of dark twists and turns will have plenty to chew on.