I hope the uncalled for comparisons with "Heaven's Gate" and, for that matter, "Brokeback Mountain" don't hurt the chances of "The Power of the Dog" doing well, either at the box-office or come awards season. This is Jane Campion's first feature film since "Bright Star" twelve years ago and it may be a masterpiece. It's a 'contemporary' western in that it's set in 1925 and is about two brothers, both ranchers, one 'good', (Jesse Plemons), and one 'bad', (Benedict Cumberbatch), and what happens when Plemons brings home a new wife, (Kirsten Dunst), and her teenage son, (Kodi Smit-McPhee).
It's a slow, visually stunning, (Ari Wegner is the DoP), character-driven piece written by Campion from Thomas Savage's novel and it deals with both the themes of revenge and redemption. Cumberbatch may appear to be the conventional villain but it's clear quite early on there are a great deal more shadings to his character and Cumberbatch is superb in a role he took over from Paul Dano. Plemons, on the other hand, never quite develops beyond being the decent family man though both Dunst and Smit-McPhee are excellent.
You could say the other major 'character' in the film is the house where they live. A great gothic pile standing in the middle of nowhere, (the film was shot in the vast open spaces of New Zealand standing in for Montana), this house is as memorable as those in "Giant" and "Days of Heaven". As with all of Campion's films nothing here is rushed. This is no more an action film than something Terrence Malick might turn out, (Malick is another point of reference), and consequently will be more suited to the art-house than the multiplex but in its simple, direct and unadorned way it's as good as anything you will see this year and it shouldn't be missed.
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