“MEEK’S CUTOFF” | Pioneer drama.
Rated PG, 1 hour, 4 minutes. Opens today at the Chez Artiste.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth,” says the Beatitude.
Yet there is little humble about Stephen Meek, the guide in director Kelly Reichardt’s stark, mysterious Western, “Meek’s Cutoff.” Neither is there mercy nor peace in the man leading three pioneer couples toward Oregon in 1845.
Meek (Bruce Greenwood) cuts quite a figure. With his unkempt hair, bush of a beard and buckskin get-up, he looks like an outcast from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows.
In contrast, the settlers are pious, thoughtful folk, increasingly worried that Meek has led them irrevocably astray. At the start of the film, one of them, Thomas Gately (Paul Dano) carves the word “Lost” in a dead tree.
The trunk looks like the remains of a long-ago beached behemoth. This party is asea in high plains of scrub, sage and grasses. And the movie makes no promises they’ll find their way back from Meek’s shortcut. Instead, the tale (written by Reichardt and Jon Raymond) concerns existential and ethical crises.
“Meek’s Cutoff” hits its high drama — and still it remains resolutely subdued — when Meek captures an Indian (Rod Rondeaux).
The pathfinder is inclined to kill the Indian on the spot. The party, in particular Emily Tetherow, isn’t so sure. Aware of a dwindling water supply, they see the scout as a sign water may be near.
From time to time, the men, led by Solomon Tetherow (Will Patton), collect in a knot, discussing their options in hushed voices. The camera stays with the women as they watch from a remove.
Informed by the diaries of women who made the challenging journey west, “Meek’s Cutoff” unfolds from a pioneer woman’s perspective.
Michelle Williams’ turn as Emily is exemplary of Reichardt’s fondness for muted, distilled performances. (Williams was the titular star, along with the director’s dog, in 2008’s “Wendy & Lucy.”)
Emily becomes the focal point and moral compass of the saga. Joining her in hardship are the pregnant, persevering mother Glory White (Shirley Henderson) and the progressively unnerved Millie Gately (Zoe Kazan).
“Meek’s Cutoff” is the quietest Western you’re likely to see for a spell. Jeff Grace’s score is so spare as to be hardly there. And yet, it adds immeasurably to the sense of vastness, of lonesomeness, of potential demise.
Described as both a minimalist and a neo-neo-realist, Reichardt has confidence in her actors, her crew, her methodical pacing. She also trusts audiences to find meaning and confusion and more meaning in her austere stories.
Which, of course, are our stories, too.
