Flawless execution

Rating: 9/10 (7 September 2017)

Giving this film a numerical rating seems almost beside the point (though I've done it anyway), because it's so close to reality. The disclaimer "based on actual events" is familiar enough for movies these days but in this case the underlying themes ring very, very true beyond just the facts of the story line. In this case my rating reflects just how well it delivers its material, which is austere, beautifully paced, and absorbing.
It's simple enough in outline -- FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olson) has been sent to a Wyoming Native American reservation to investigate the murder of 18-year-old Natalie (whom we see in flashbacks). Soon, the body of her boyfriend is uncovered too and the case becomes a double murder. Banner joins with local wildlife officer Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) to pursue the evidence. Familiar and excellent Native American actors like Graham Greene, Gil Birmingham, and Tantoo Cardinal have a strong presence throughout. But the real, uncredited star of this film is the mountain and prairie landscape. It's built from the powerfully simple elements of 'snow and silence' -- the only things, as Lambert says to another character toward the end, that we haven't taken away from the native people. In every scene, it's just quietly THERE as the backdrop, and sometimes completely determines what the characters can even do. My wife and I went into the theater to see it on a bright, sunny summer afternoon, but when we came out 2 hours later, the feel of the landscape had seeped in so inexorably that we instinctively expected that it ought to be cold and snowy outside!
The actors are all great across the board. No false notes. Olson plays the agent who's been thrown into an unfamiliar environment but is able to learn quickly, lead, yet has the sense to take all the help and advice available. For me though the real centerpiece was Renner's character, a man of subtleties that are uncovered bit by bit. We learn that his own teenage daughter was killed some time ago (and therefore he's the only one who can truly talk to Birmingham's character Martin, the murdered girl's father). He's already been through the abyss and come out the other side. In a sense he's the reverse of the stereotypical tough-guy-with-a-soft-center. He's laconic, matter-of-fact, a loyal father to his remaining child (a young son) and as an expert tracker, hunter, and shooter he has credibility with the locals both on and off the reservation. He's a sympathetic, intrinsically good man. But we gradually see that he's built a rock-hard core into his soul that does not forgive willfully bad choices (such as by the son of his friend Martin) and most of all he doesn't forgive evil. Eventually (SPOILER!) he treats the handful of violent, dull, selfish young men who are finally uncovered as the murderers the same way he would a mountain lion attacking cattle -- and with no greater effect on his conscience. But it's not Terminator-style cartoon vengeance at all. It's quietly done and all the more effective for its realism. The final events pack a real wallop.
Afterwards I thought a bit about how this movie would have worked if filmed in Canada. Most of it would carry over with no serious change: same kind of landscape (probably southwestern Alberta would work instead of Wyoming), the same backstory of native peoples held down in depressed surroundings and lack of opportunity, and the same horrible history of their missing and murdered girls. The one thing that would have played out differently was the shocking firefight with handguns near the end: no guns, so no firefight.
The only reason I don't give this 10/10 is that it's hard to make out some of the dialog. Many of the actors don't enunciate clearly. Why is mumbling such a common 'style' now?