The Homesman

— Westerns may be a dying art form, but Tommy Lee Jones isn’t giving them up without a fight. This is a slow moving but beautiful story of a plain and bossy woman (Hilary Swank) joining forces with a grumpy opportunist (Jones) to transport three women, all driven crazy by the bleak isolation of pioneer life, across Nebraska to Iowa. It’s a long tale and sometimes the film (Netflix) seems to belabor the slow progress across the plains, and it seems a shame that the focus is as much on Jones’ character as on Swank’s, who is so competent and determined, hindered only by her gender. All the same, both Jones and Swank give great performances and, with smaller roles by the likes of James Spader, John Lithgow, and Meryl Streep, it’s definitely an interesting film.

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[2014. 122 min. Directed by Tommy Lee Jones. Starring Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/movies/the-homesman-stars-hilary-swank-and-tommy-lee-jones.html