Stream it:
|
With: Heather Graham, Brielle Robillard, Corin Nemec, Tom Hopper, Donald Cerrone, Gattlin Griffith, Zachary Keller, Ray Abruzzo, David Lipper, Jeanette Schock, Isabella Blake-Thomas
|
Written by: Richard Taylor
|
Directed by: Audrey Cummings
|
MPAA Rating: R for violence and some language including a sexual reference
|
Running Time: 93
|
|
Date: 08/23/2024
|
|
|
|
Skewed Ranch
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Audrey Cummings's smart, sparse, and tense Western Place of Bones takes a fairly old story and makes it fresh again with playful dialogue, secrets hidden and revealed, and especially with a surprisingly horrific undercurrent.
Pandora Meadows (Heather Graham) and her teen daughter Hester (Brielle Robillard) live on a remote ranch, miles from the nearest town. It's a place they built with their own hands, and where Pandora's late husband lies. One day, Hester discovers an intruder, a wounded bank robber called Calhoun (Corin Nemec), with a saddlebag full of money. They take him in and tend to his wounds, although a blast through his leg has shattered the bone.
When gangrene sets in, Pandora is forced to remove the leg at the knee. Later, she learns that Calhoun actually killed the other members of his own gang (to take the money for himself), and that a villainous bunch, led by the vicious Bear John (Tom Hopper), are looking for him. Worse, they have a tracker, Cherokee Jack (Gattlin Griffith) that can find anyone, no matter how well-hidden.
Place of Bones joins the still-awfully-short list of Westerns directed by women, and while it doesn't quite reach the artistry of Meek's Cutoff or The Power of the Dog, it's still a worthy addition.
Right away, there are conflicts at work. While Pandora and Hester are nowhere near civilization, the mother keeps insisting that the daughter use correct English ("don't say anything," rather than "don't say nothing"). And while Pandora is stubbornly pious, she seems to know an awful lot about guns and gunshot wounds.
Even the minimal ranch house, mostly dusty brown, is perked up by a gloriously colorful Tiffany window. Pandora's mysterious past (and that name, which of course references the box that you should never open), is juxtaposed with Calhoun's own ever-evolving web of lies and deceptions.
Admittedly, the standoff-at-the-lone-ranch-house plot has been done many times, but where Place of Bones departs from other Westerns is its shocker of an added layer, which is not for the squeamish. Suffice to say that when Pandora promises, "the Lord will provide," it translates into "be careful what you wish for."
|
