Great Movie

Rating: 10/10 (7 May 2018)

Recently my boyfriend tricked me into watching the movie Wind River. I say tricked because I had seen a movie by the same writer/director, Taylor Sheridan, called Hell or High Water, and thoroughly hated it. I found Hell or High Water to be, plot wise, slow moving. Despite liking the actors none of the characters appealed to me or even really made me care about their story line. The end of the movie left me feeling ungratified and upset that I wasted two hours of my time. Hence my boyfriend having to bamboozle me. I am very glad he did though, because I ended up loving Wind River. Unlike Hell or High Water, I found Wind River's characters and plot to be captivating. Even though I have nothing in common with the characters I still found them relatable. Sheridan did an amazing job of making you feel connected to the characters almost immediately, and because of this I genuinely cared about these characters well-being. This care makes your heart pound, your palms sweat and has you siting on the edge of your seat for practically the entire movie. I don't think I relaxed once throughout the hour and fifty-one minutes of the movie. I was constantly jumping up and down in my seat and screaming at the television. In my opinion these are signs of a truly fantastic movie, it fully engages you and has you wrapped up in the experience. There is nothing worse than watching a movie and looking around the room to see that everyone on their phone. No one dared pick up their phone in Wind River, you didn't want to miss a single detail.
Sheridan was able to create this intense murder mystery even though the suspect pool was incredibly shallow. To add this, out of the two possible groups of people that could have committed this murder, he eliminates one of them very early in the film. So, for almost the entirety of the film you know deep down who did it. Sheridan does such an amazing job in the way he edits, the order in which he choices to tell this story that you almost don't even notice. You are enjoyably confused up until the climax of the film.
I told my Dad to watch this movie, and as much as he enjoyed it he found it very depressing. I agree the topic and central plot of this movie is incredibly sad, but I don't believe it defines the film. In my opinion the ending of a film is the most important part. The ending of a film is what people remember, it leaves a certain taste in people's mouths. There is nothing more disappointing then watching a brilliant film with a fantastic plot then having it end poorly. By end poorly I don't mean the ending was sad, I mean the ending had you walking away ungratified or even confused. If a film had a bad ending I don't only feel like I wasted my time but I feel like a good plot has been wasted. I found the ending of the Wind River to be so poetic and gratifying. It was so beautifully played out that I felt okay with the overall depressing theme of the film. I felt like there was a means to an end. That justice and good prevailed in the end. This is a personal feeling though, like I mentioned my Dad did not find the end nearly as gratifying thus leading him to define the film was overwhelmingly sad.
Overall Wind River had everything I personally love in a film and almost nothing I didn't. This film is very dark but its balanced beautifully. I think some true markers of a great film are if you would watch it again and would you recommend it to a friend? and to both these questions I would give Wind River a strong yes.