A real slow-burner

Rating: 6/10 (1 December 2018)

WIND RIVER is a slow-burning detective mystery featuring a couple of interesting actors as the leads and a plot set on a Native American reservation in snowy Wyoming. It harks back to earlier American thrillers such as FARGO, but the main inspiration seems to be Scandi-noir here, with intense white-outs and an investigation that plays out as slowly as possible. The good news is that Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner are old hands by now and they carry the film very well with good depth of characterisation and the like. The mystery is a little too slight for my liking, although doubtlessly important and more relevant to our times than ever. The best scene is a late-on flashback in which Jon Bernthal proves electrifying (as usual) in his one-scene cameo.