Effective and Devastating

Rating: 8/10 (21 August 2017)

By being a purposefully paced and uncompromisingly bleak crime story, Wind River ends the summer movie season with a sudden, astonishing thud. Knowing that the film is written by Taylor Sheridan, who also wrote Sicario (2015) and Hell or High Water (2016), may prepare you insofar as themes and setting. But nothing will prepare you for Wind River's effective use of tension building and its devastating sense of justice.
Wind River refers to the Wind River Indian Reservation, the final resting place of 18-year-old Natalie Hanson whose body is found frozen beyond a remote mountain ridge. The FBI sends rookie agent Jane Banner (Olsen) to investigate. She quickly finds herself beyond her depth and immediately deputizes FWS agent Cory Lambert (Renner) who not only has a good relationship with the Tribal Police, but also knows the wilderness like the back of his hand.
The movie isn't so much a mystery whereby we're supposed to follow the clues and narrow down a pretty scant list of suspects. The film instead leads you by the nose from place to remote place; letting the landscape shape your sense of dread. In the words of Agent Lambert "You're looking for clues, but you're missing all the signs." And those signs come in the shape of pounding blizzards, dangerous wildlife and a destructive sense of isolation which threatens to cover the tracks of a grizzly crime.
Wind River marks the last of Sheridan's Frontier Trilogy and the first in which he directs. By juxtaposing the foreboding splendor of the Rockies with painterly scenes of human misery at the "Res", Sheridan showcases his eye for innately human storytelling. Unlike Sicario, this tale of retribution approaches its subject matter with a sense of poetic justice and clarity of mind. And unlike Hell or High Water, Wind River equalizes the power dynamics of hero and villain via its environment. This isn't a movie where the hero succeeds based on luck or righteousness but by prepared they are.
Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner prove themselves intensely capable actors, aptly taking advantage of a script that requires characterization through action. Olsen especially provides a sympathetic and active lead. She along with Graham Greene provide the few moments of mirth in a movie that would otherwise come across as starkly depressing. Renner's role can and should have probably gone to a more grizzled actor. Lambert as written follows the ebbs and flows of the story with quiet sadness and hard won horse sense. He pulls it all off, but not to the level that the role requires. Perhaps it was the joint image of seeing both Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch in the same movie that made me think "youthful". The man is 46 so he can hardly be blamed for being too young.
Much of Wind River's other faults are small and can be attributed to inexperience more than anything. There are a few moments of awkward blocking and inappropriate moments of hand-held that neuter some of the film's calmer moments. Taylor Sheridan also defuses many moments of quiet with a soundtrack that should sound haunting but comes across more like its droning. Then there's the framing of the story within a socio-economic context. Rather than letting the story speak for itself, Sheridan adds unnecessary overtures at the beginning and end, cheapening the film's resolve.
All is forgiven. The morally complex beats of the story and the force with which it hits you is evidence of something very much beyond. Wind River can comfortably be called a western but its potency sets itself apart. It's moody, gritty, understated and unassailably bleak. In a moment of practical wisdom Agent Lambert says, "There's no sense going where a wolf could be, I rather hunt by going where he's been." Wind River follows that wisdom to its logical end.