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By Sandra Olmsted

“People like to talk about death and taxes, but when it comes to crazy, they stay hushed up,” says a character in Tommy Lee Jones’ second foray into feature film directing. Like The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, The Homesman bends the Western genre. This time Jones, who also co-wrote and stars, explores the effects of the harsh frontier life on the gentler sex. When three neighbor ladies of Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) loose their minds and suffer rejection from the men who brought them to the dangerous isolation of the Western frontier, Mary stoically takes the job of transporting them “East” to Iowa. Mary, a lonely 31-year-old spinster, refuses to be a tragic figure even when her neighbor rejects her offer of a marriage that is more a partnership. According to him, she’s “bossy” and “plain,” and he will go East to find a pretty wife. This statement resonates when one of the three husbands talks about how pretty his wife once was.

With the rejected women tied in the paddy wagon, Mary set out on the dangerous five-week trip across the flat, dusty, forlorn plains of the Nebraska territory. When she discovers George Briggs (Jones), a claims jumper left so his “horse will hang him,” Mary cuts George free only after extracting a promise to do whatever she asks. She wants his help on the journey. Although Briggs hardly seems a reliable sort, he raises to the occasion when promised that $300 awaits him in Iowa. While the three women wail, staring into space, and scream, their stories unfold in minute and hard to follow flashbacks scattered throughout the film.

Having lost three children to diphtheria, Arabella (Grace Gummer, daughter of Meryl Streep) silently clutches a doll and stares into space. Despairing the failure of her family’s farm, Theoline (Miranda Otto) hysterically throws her newborn baby down the outhouse. Meanwhile, Gro (Sonja Richter), who lost her mother and couldn’t bare putting the body out in the snow, spends her days writhing and screaming and still speaking to her dead mother, who was Gro’s only sanctuary from her husband’s raping her. A bit of Mary’s childhood also comes out, especially the loss of her own mother, which acts as counterpoint to the actions of the women and their families, such as Theoline’s little girls preparing their mother to travel as if they’re preparing her for burial. The two little girls look exceedingly vulnerable in the male environment of the frontier.

Although Jones tries to defy the rumors that he has a condesending attitude towards women by initially telling the story from Mary point of view, the overwhelming message is women couldn’t take the hardships of the frontier. Although some critics have bandied around the term “feminist Western,” The Homesman shifts point of view to George’s male gaze about 2/3 of the way through, loosing the feminist tag. Jones does, however, share the screen fairly with Swank’s character despite having the directorial power to make the film even more about George, and Jones remains true to Glendon Swarthout’s complex 1988 novel which Jones, Kieran Fitzgerald, and Wesley A. Oliver adapted.

While Jones also remains unflinching in his portrayal of male pioneers as a drunken, unkempt, hard-as-nails lot, with The Homesman, he creates sympathy and new respect for the pioneer women who survived the rigors of civilizing the West. The nuanced performances by and terrific chemistry between Swank and Jones make this somewhat depressing film well worth watching. Marco Beltrami’s moving piano-and-strings score perfectly complement Rodrigo Prieto’s beautiful images of an often barren West. In theaters now, The Homesman, a Roadside Attractions/Saban Films release, runs 122 minutes and is rated R for violence, sexual content, some disturbing behavior and nudity.

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