Good film, but flawed

Rating: 7/10 (25 November 2017)

Overall, I enjoyed this film. I liked the story, the interesting wilderness settings, the Native American angle, and the themes. They did a great job of portraying a bleak and hostile land. And Jeremy Renner puts in a solid performance in a kind of role he's accustomed to, but also quite effective in. He pretty much carries this film.
The moment things first started to slip for me was with the appearance of Elizabeth Olsen. My first thought was "oh no, not that silly Avengers girl." I think I get why Olsen was put into this role - she's supposed to be a "fish out of water." But completely miscasting someone is not quite the same thing as having a good actor portray being out of their element. It's kind of like a short cut to the end and it doesn't work. I didn't find her performance believable (or good). I see this is a Weinstein produced film and will just leave it at that...
The other main thing that bothered me about the film was the inconsistency with the winter shots. While film production in winter is extremely difficult, I felt that some of the issues were preventable. It doesn't actually go from complete overcast and a blizzard to blue sky, calm and sunny in 10 minutes anywhere that I know of on earth. And when it's actually cold out, you can see people's breath. See "Fargo" as an example of a film that pulls off winter production well.
Despite these things, this remains one of the better films I've seen this year.