Grim, tragic, and laced throughout with sudden brutal violence, this Great Outdoors noir can seep into your bones like the sub-zero Wyoming weather that both hardens and warps the film's characters into extreme behavior.......
A Fish And Wildlife officer (Jeremy Renner, outstanding in the role), stumbles upon the body of a Native American teenage girl, who apparently ran six miles barefoot across the unforgiving snowy landscape, trying to escape one of the men who gang raped her.
This gruesome death further haunts Renner's character, already coping with the mysterious disappearance of his own teenage daughter, who was the dead girl's best friend. Both girls were Native Americans......Renner's daughter coming from his now destroyed marriage to a Native American woman.
Along with the Wind River Indian Reservation's sheriff (Graham Greene) it doesn't take them all that long to get to the heart of the matter........amid the sparse collection of men and boys who've been driven to drugs, rage, depravity and murder while eking out a stark, lonely existence in the endless snowy tundra.
A movie like this is why we fell in love with movies in the first place......beautifully crafted dramatic scenes by screenwriter-director Taylor Sheridan (who also wrote "Sicario" and "Hell And High Water".......an eye-popping visual sense of the environment, which is as much a character in the film as the human actors.......and a strong command of narrative drive that holds you to your seat until the very last shot.
Our only quibble here involves Sheridan taking a daring risk by going full Tarantino in the film's finale, laying himself open to potential ridicule. No question it's way over the top, but remains in keeping with film's depiction of people pushed to their limits by the inhumanly harsh landscape.
BQ says to seek this one out right away......4 frozen stars (****)......don't forget to bundle up and turn on the space heater while you watch.......
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