A period piece set in the last third of 19th century rural America, The Homesman is co-written and directed by Tommy Lee Jones, who stars in this brooding Western alongside Hilary Swank.
Stark and austere, like the mid-western landscape in which it unfolds, The Homesman opens in Canada on Nov. 21, and is about a strong-willed woman and a cantankerous man who learn to appreciate each other’s qualities as they face hardships.
Mary Bee Cuddy (Swank), a spinster of 31, lives alone in a cabin in the remote Nebraska Territory. In the opening scene, she’s seen in a barren field, walking behind two mules pulling a plough. Looking strong and resolute, she wears a puffy striped dress and a black bonnet. She’s independent, resourceful and resilient, but longs for male companionship, as the next scene illustrates.
A neighbor of about her age and station arrives just in time for supper. As they share a slab of home-made cheese he’s brought, she abruptly proposes marriage. “I won’t take no for an answer,” she says. Her guest is not interested in her proposition. Cuddy is too plain for him and she’s “bossy.”
The Homesman, however, is not just about a lonely woman in search of male company. It’s about an arduous journey. The pastor (John Lithgow) of the local church has taken it upon himself to help three women in the vicinity who’ve become deranged after personal tragedies. He wants to reunite them with their families back east, but needs a volunteer to transport there.
Cuddy, righteous and religious, volunteers for the trip, which is fraught with dangers. As she sets off for Iowa in a rickety wagon, she encounters George Briggs (Jones), a ruffian sitting on a horse under a tree with a noose around his neck. Cuddy offers to cut him down and give him $300 if he agrees to accompany her and the women to Iowa.
Although not personally fond of each other, Cuddy and Briggs implicitly respect each other’s qualities. Swank, looking severe, projects hardness yet goodness and gentleness, while Jones, his face deeply lined, is a study in crankiness and self-reliance.
The Homesman is set against the backdrop of the untamed, sparsely populated and still dangerous American prairie.
As Cuddy and Briggs push eastward in bitter cold weather, they encounter a small band of Indians who may not necessarily be friendly. Briggs knows how to handle them, and Cuddy is impressed by his grace and quick thinking under pressure. Similarly, she’s impressed by the manner in which Briggs rescues one of the deranged women from the clutches of a cowboy.
Briggs is not a person who should be crossed. When a cruel Irish hotel keeper (James Spader) refuses to feed and house Briggs and his charges, he exacts terrible vengeance on him and his establishment.
Meryl Streep, in a cameo appearance, portrays a minister’s wife who receives Briggs at the end of his journey.
The Homesman is a spare, gritty, unsentimental film about life on the American frontier on the cusp of its transformation, and a woman’s place in it.