Everybody hurts sometimes. But for Edee (Robin Wright), hurt has pervaded every nook and cranny of existence in Wright’s somber, self-reflective directorial debut Land. We know of Edee’s loss only through fragments: the glimpses of a husband and son inauspiciously missing. The thinly-veiled threats of self-harm made to her sister (Kim Dickens.) Edee is an irrevocably altered force for reasons that are all too clear.
Her life amongst the living serves as a constant reminder of what she has lost and she cannot do it for one more day. In a Chris McCandless-inspired move, she chucks herself as far from society as she is able, winding up on a far-flung Wyoming mountain in a “quaint” log cabin with no running water. There, she must learn to survive in the wilderness with no lifelines: no car, no cell phone, no electricity, no Uber Eats.
A de-facto hermit, Edee struggles to tame the wilderness encroaching her homestead. She can’t bring herself to hunt the copious deer and elk wandering across the countless acres she calls home. Wolfs ravage her attempts to garden. Bears help themselves to her food stores. Fishing is only so productive through ice. And when the blistery winter months come knocking on her door, the fear of hypothermia and starvation become more than a romanticized way to lose one’s life to nature.
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Enter Demián Bichir, a local hunter, who brings Edee back from the brink- literally and figuratively – teaching her to live off the land in harmony with nature and to find a peace that she long thought was no longer possible within herself. Her desire to dwell in her pain softens as her friendship with Bichir’s hunter blossoms. The two performers share quiet, understated chemistry, a forlorn and somber yearning for connection; the giver and the taker; the student and the master; yin and yang. Both have something to gain from their newfound bond and Land thrives in the subtle grace of their friendship.
An often stunning film to behold, Wright drains every ounce of big sky majesty out of her location shoot and with the eye of cinematographer Bobby Bukowski, it’s plastered on the celluloid in stunning detail. Snow-capped mountains, babbling trout-filled brooks, plentiful wildlife, and endless skies underscore Edee’s temptation to live off the land but regardless of how painterly the landscapes are, they abet the dangers of an untamed wild; a wild compounded inside Edee.
Written by Jesse Chatham and Erin Dignam, Land wrestles with insurmountable grief in an honest and sincere manner. By most accounts, it is a humble film and does not explore unchartered territory but Wright proves a capable hand at giving weight and purpose to the story. Sustained by an understated but deeply-felt turn from Wright, her directorial debut is a picture of great sensitivity and grace, that explores what it means to find the strength to come back from the brink.
CONCLUSION: Taking full advantage of its awe-striking setting, ‘Land’ explores a woman’s path to recovery after unspeakable tragedy and is held up by delicate direction and a pair of soulful performances from Robin Wright and Demián Bichir.
B
For all our coverage of Sundance 2021, click here.
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By: Matt Oakes
Started blogging about film in college when the university paper wouldn’t have him. Dislikes your consensus film Twitter favorites. Devotee of horror movies that make him die a little inside. Catches films at festivals when he can. Proud SFCS and OFCS member and Tomatometer-approved critic. Editor-in-chief of Silver Screen Riot.
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