Wind River (2017)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Expected more

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This film is enjoyable, beautiful to look at and well acted. However, the script is very flawed. The murderer is revealed at the end but is given no actual development which makes him quite a forgettable villain. The other characters are also very uninteresting. The film is quite violent at times. It also has too many characters to keep track of. The weakest part of the film was the ending. The villain dies fifteen minutes from the end and we end up being given too much time with Jeremy Renner. I wanted the final scene to be shared between Renner and the FBI agent. Instead it chooses to end with a minor character, one of the local Indians. This scene is confusing and unnesseccary. However, most of the film is pretty good. The best scene is when the police go to the caravan and there is a big shootout. Its original in many ways and could be seen as a completely serious version of Fargo. 7/10

This film is absolutely great. One of the best I've seen as of recent times and is now among my favourite films of all time, or at least of 2017. The performances are great all around, Renner's best performance since the hurt locker. Not the happiest film, and there are some hard to watch scenes, but that only makes it better in my eyes. The action scenes hit hard, and the setting feels like a character in its own right. The run time felt a little short, and I would of loved an extra 10 minutes or so, to tie things up and add more character to the leads. But overall this film is amazing, and I can't recommend it enough. The statistic at the end also shocked me.

This was a good film, spoilt somewhat by sound issues. I was not sure what the problem was - were the actors just mumbling? It almost felt like the sound guy was standing too far away - the music and sound effects were fine, but even with the sound turned up to 75/100 I had a hard time hearing what the characters said - that was very hard going. I don't think I got more than a couple of words of the Native American policeman said. Much of the (important?) dialog appeared to be mumbled. Perhaps because I'm English I was not completely "dialled in" to the accents - but I can't remember having an issue with American accents before. I think because I missed quite a bit of the dialog there were a few loose ends left hanging for me. For example, the snow mobile trail that led up to Matt. Did he try to escape, or was he taken there by the "baddies"? If taken there by the baddies, why was the trail only in one direction? And where did they go after? I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation, but it was perhaps missed in the poor sound quality of the dialog.Having said all that it was an interesting movie and very well done otherwise.

Jeremy Renner is amazing in this movie. Whatever you've seen him in before and thought the Hurt Locker was it? Watch this. A really atmospheric movie with a great stoic emotion in line with the rugged nature of the landscape and weather.