Overall, pretty good

Rating: 7/10 (12 June 2018)

"We have to drive 50 miles to go 5. Welcome to Wyoming."
Not only is this a cool line of dialogue, but I believe it perfectly captures how much the land and the environment affect the story, pacing, and tone of Wind River. The movie starts with a girl running panicked through the wintery woods before collapsing in the night. She is then discovered frozen by Jeremy Renner, a trained tracker who knows his ways around these parts and with these people-even if he is a white outsider. It's obvious he has some sort of troubled past that hunches on his back despite his efforts to push forward. This mysterious past motivates him to help the young FBI agent Elizabeth Olsen with the case; and coming straight from Las Vegas, it's obvious that she needs the help of a local.
The movie has ominous undertones of the dark side of humanity sprinkled within the glistening snow of the beautiful landscape. The serious, almost straight-forward approach to the simplistic story kept reminding me of Sicario, and I didn't realize until afterward that it's the same writer. This writer Taylor Sheridan, who previously was lauded for both Sicario and Hell or High Water, both writes and directs for this film. He's definitely imitating aspects from Denis Villeneuve, and if there's a director to imitate, he's one of the best choices. With that said, I think the production, editing, score, and cinematography are all ultimately better than the decent directing.
On the surface the film is about a murder investigation on an Indian reservation with an FBI agent receiving help from a skilled tracker/hunter. And except a nice turn from Jon Bernthal, there's nothing really surprising here. Some shocking moments, but nothing surprising. But that's rightfully not the focus of the film. And neither are the decently developed characters. Wyoming takes the starring role here. There's enough snow in sight to freeze a polar bear, and despite how little that analogy may make sense, it's true. And it's used to full effect with blistering wide shots mixed with shivering closeups of the characters. The setting is an obstacle, a visual splendor, a kickstarter for the right moments in the plot, and an underlying motivation. Without Wyoming, this movie is nowhere near the same.
As much as I praise the setting for this film, you do still have to knock the film a bit for the story. The unflinching storytelling-almost reminiscent of Prisoners-will work for some, and may be a slight turnoff for others looking for a more upbeat movie. That's not really the issue. Olsen and Renner run into new characters, potential suspects even, and it's pretty easy to tell from the get-go how all these encounters are going to go. To keep with the Prisoners comparison, there's no Jake Gyllenhaal to do detective work here. And to Taylor Sheridan's credit, he plays up the mood, setting, and characters to focus on them because he can't rely on a plot twist filled story to keep the audience engaged.
This film really does try to replicate a lot of the successful tension built in Sicario. It works to some degree, and the filmmakers do an admirable job trying to coverup any other shortcomings this film has. It's not the best film, and it certainly isn't a joyous film, but if you're trying to think of something to watch, this is a better choice than plenty of other movies. Heck, it definitely won't put you in a merry spirit, but it's got plenty of snow to be a movie to watch over the break.
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