I would love to go somewhere in Colorado and Wyoming one day in the future because I've never been. But, based on friends' praises, I trust them. However, after watching this movie, I may be hesitant because of the mystery that is going on for this movie. Nevertheless, this is from the director, Taylor Sheridan, who has written two great movies, Sicario and Hell or High Water, which were both in my top 10 in both years. So, I was excited for his directorial debut and also his next screenplay which concludes his own trilogy of stories told in different frontiers but wrapped around in a mystery. Even though this movie is not as great as Sicario and Hell or High Water, this is a chilling (no pun intended) and brutal drama that also extends into a more humanistic story about the characters.
As US Fish and Wildlife Service agent Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) has come across a body on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, she tries to identify who it is. She is 18-year old resident, Natalie Henson (Kelsey Chow), as her frozen corpse is barefoot and lacking proper winter attire. He signals the local authorities which is head by Tribal Police Chief Ben (Graham Greene). Because the situation is repulsive, the FBI sends rookie special agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) to investigate the murder and Lambert takes Banner to inspect the body and after surveying the scene, she orders a full autopsy.
The next day, Lambert, Banner and Chief Ban visit Natalie's father, Martin Hanson (Gil Birmingham) and interrogates him but Martin and his wife are still shake up by the loss of their daughter. They find out from the autopsy that Natalie was beaten down violently and sexually and brutally traumatized. However, when the medical examiner finds out what she died from, the examiner cannot conclude whether or not that this was a murder.
I liked this movie very much. This movie has another chapter of poetry in Taylor Sheridan's trilogy of frontier storytelling as we look over another desolate land. It is niveous hell that can kill you immediately without warm resources and plus, this setting is perfect to set up a broody atmosphere of a cold murder that is full of great dialogue and anguish that sets up the characters real well. Plus, the mystery is quite well done as the chemistry between Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen work as equals who try to figure out who was responsible for the crime. Plus, I like how unpredictable this went but because it is a sort of familiar build-up with Olsen coming in as the FBI agent and Renner bringing her in. It was a bit like Sicario. But, it is not fair because Taylor Sheridan wrote and directed it.
Like I said, Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen give great performances but I was definitely impressed with Renner, which gives one of his best performances, because he evokes a person that seems full of guilt as we learn a secret from him that he reveals to Olsen's character and to the audience that connects with his responsibility of the murder. It is an entirely different 180-degree turn when he is introduced as a one-dimensional person doing his job. Olsen's character as a FBI agent seems familiar again like the movie I said from the last paragraph but it is different since one of her first missions is seemingly in a whole different world. Gil Birmingham is great as the father who has a fantastic last scene. Graham Greene and Jon Bernthal are also good.
I was a bit disturbed by the flashback because I question whether it was necessary. I would have liked it to have the same momentum like Sicario in which the crime is actually explained and not shown. I felt that it slowed the movie down. But, the final shootout towards the end is awesome and then the conclusion of that shootout is quite poetic and cold simultaneously. Wind River is a bleak, tense and character-driven that lacks a few layers from his previous writing efforts but it is a visionary, tactile effort from Sheridan that showcases that he can indeed craft a movie.
***1/2
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