When whodunit goes to how’d-they-do-it
Indigenous, white cops track down woman’s killer
Actor-turned-writer Taylor Sheridan wrote one of the best films of 2015 — Sicario, directed by Canada’s Denis Villeneuve. The next year he did it again for David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water, which was Oscar-nominated for its screenplay and featured one of the best lines in a while, when a no-guff southern waitress barks at Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham: “What don’t you want?”
So it’s no surprise that Sheridan’s writing-directing debut was a highly anticipated world premiere at the Sundance festival last January. And while Wind River is undoubtedly a very good film, it doesn’t clear this year’s-top-10 hurdle. Sheridan is a good director, but his greatest strengths remain on the page.
“Inspired by actual events,” the film takes place on the actual Native American reservation of the same name in western Wyoming. When the body of a young woman is found in the snow, the FBI dispatches rookie agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) to investigate. Inexperienced, underdressed for the weather (she’s based in balmy Las Vegas) and trying to navigate the culture, she takes on local hunter/tracker Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner, projecting an inner grief ) to help her.
Cory is very good at what he does — in his introductory scene he’s sharpshooting wolves that have been preying on the local sheep — and his education-by-example techniques make for some gripping scenes. “Come here; let me show you,” he says to his FBI partner more than once, and it’s (coincidentally?) excellent filmmaking advice that more writers and directors should follow.
Cory’s taciturn nature, which thankfully never segues into a needless romantic encounter with Agent Banner, is eventually revealed to stem from the unsolved death of his own half-Indigenous teenage daughter, Emily, some years earlier. (The dead woman at the centre of the plot was Emily’s childhood friend.) He succinctly tells Jane of his loss, concluding: “You want to know how, right?” “I do, but —” “Makes two of us.” And so it goes, no words and no time wasted as the investigators start poking around for clues, leading to a violent surprise that turns the story from a whodunit into a how’d-they-do-it. It’s all set against a frozen white backdrop, the weather competing with the crime to see which can chill the viewer the most.
The supporting cast includes excellent performances by such First Nations actors as Tantoo Cardinal, Hell or High Water’s Birmingham and Graham Greene, whose greatness pretty much goes without saying. As the reservation’s chief of police, he’s the font of all sombre wisdom Cory is too taciturn to say. “Don’t look at me. I’m used to no help,” he remarks, and later: “This isn’t the land of backup, Jane, this is the land of you’re on your own.”
Wind River is a decidedly U.S. film, but at a time when Canada’s First Nations continue to grapple with violence toward Indigenous women, it’s bound to strike a chord on this side of the border as well. Politics aside, however, it’s also just a really effective crime thriller. If you’re deciding between this and another film this weekend, it’s quite possible the other one is what you don’t want.