The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
THE HOMESMAN
BBC2, 10.20pm
Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) owns a ranch and a sizeable plot of land on the outskirts of a close-knit Nebraska community. Three local women (Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto, Sonja Richter) show signs of insanity and Reverend Alfred Dowd (John Lithgow) proposes that one of the husbands should take the wives to a mission in Iowa run by Altha Carter (Meryl Streep). When the gutless spouses fail to support the plan, Cuddy volunteers to drive the wagon instead. En route, she rescues a claim jumper called George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) from hanging on condition that he helps escort the three women to the Missouri River. The Homesman is a bleak and compelling feminist western, which repeatedly takes risks with tone, pacing and plotting.