The Homesman (2014)

Hilary Swank is Mary Bee Cuddy, a spinster living alone on her farm in Nebraska Territory.

By the luck of a draw, she finds herself responsible for taking three women who have gone crazy to a church in Iowa where they can be cared for.

She comes across claim-jumper George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones), astride his horse, with his neck in a noose, about to hang the minute that horse decides to abandon him.

Mary Bee cuts him down with one understanding: He must do what she asks. And what she asks is for him to accompany her to Iowa.

It won’t be an easy trip, she realizes. There could be Indians. There will most certainly be hard winter weather.

There’s the great vastness of the land they have to cross. Then there’s caring for the women, who can’t care for themselves.

Briggs agrees to go along, partly because he gave his word, then because Mary Bee has promised him $300 will be waiting for him at the end of the journey.

And so they set off – a spinster and an old man, a former cavalry deserter who has lived an aimless existence.

But will they have the fortitude to survive such a trip?

Tommy Lee Jones as George Briggs, begging to be saved by Mary Bee in The Homesman (2014)

Hilary Swank as Mary Bee Cuddy, meeting George Briggs with a noose around his neck in The Homesman (2014)

Review:

The trailer looked oh-so-great. The cast includes Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank and Merle Streep. How could it miss? Unfortunately, it does.

Oh, Swank turns in a fine performance as the homesteader who’s a symbol of strength on the outside, running a profitable farm/ranch in the harsh wilderness, but who’s desperately lonely on the inside.

Jones plays the tough curmudgeon we’ve come to expect when he dons Western dubs. But, sure enough, there’s a heart and a code of honor buried in there somewhere.

Streep? She doesn’t show up until the film’s final few minutes and has a very small role as a minister’s wife back in Iowa.

And Jones, also the director, serves up some memorable images: One of the “mad” women tossing her baby down an outhouse hole. Another of them “cutting” herself with a sewing needle. The grand hotel in the middle of -– well, lots of nothingness.

Unfortunately, there’s too much nothingness in the film, and it turns into a two-hour snooze fest. And a bit of a downer.

Once upon a time, Tommy Lee Jones took a memorable journey back to Lonesome Dove. This journey from West to East isn’t nearly as entertaining.

Grace Gummer as Arabella Sours, one of the woman Mary Bee is taking to Iowa in The Homesman (2014)

Miranda Otto as Theoline Belknap, the woman who killed her own baby in The Homesman (2014)

Directed by:
Tommy Lee Jones

Cast:
Tommy Lee Jones … George Briggs
Hilary Swank … Mary Bee Cuddy
Grace Gummer … Arabella Sours
Miranda Otto … Theoline Belknap
Sonja Richter … Gro Svendsen
Meryl Streep … Altha Carter
Jo Harvey Allen … Mrs. Polhemus
Barry Corbin … Buster Shaver
David Dencik … Thor Svendsen
William Fichtner … Vester Belknap
Evan Jones … Bob Giffen
Carolien Lagerfelt … Netti Svendsen
John Lithgow … Rev. Alfred Dowd
Tim Blake Nelson … Freighter
Jesse Plemons … Garn Sours
James Spader … Aloysius Duffy

Runtime: 122 min.

Sonja Richter as Gro Svendsen, one of the woman being taken back East in The Homesman (2014)

Meryl Streep as Altha Carter, the reverend’s wife who’s awaiting delivery of the three women from the West in The Homesman (2014)

Memorable lines:

Mary Bee Cuddy: “I live uncommonly alone.”

George Briggs: “Three crazy women for five weeks is a lot more than I bargained for.”

George Briggs: “Your mothers and your sisters and your wives and your daughters will curse your broke-dick souls.”

George Briggs: “You’re gonna meet three kinds of people out here. You’re gonna meet wagon trains that don’t want to see crazy people. You’re gonna meet freighters who will surely rape you. And you’re gonna meet Indians who will kill you and then rape you after they kill me.”

Hilary Swank as Mary Bee Cuddy with Tommy Lee Jones as George Briggs in The Homesman (2014)

Hilary Swank as Mary Bee Cuddy, ready to defend the women she’s transporting in The Homesman (2014)

Tommy Lee Jones as George Briggs, offering the Indians a horse for safe passage in The Homesman (2014)

John Lithgow as Rev. Alfred Dowd, talking to Mary Bee about the journey ahead in The Homesman (2014)

Barry Corbin as Buster Shaver, the blacksmith who prepares a wagon for Mary Bee’s journey in The Homesman (2014)

Tim Blake Nelson as a freighter determined to claim Arabella as his own in The Homesman (2014)

James Spader as Aloysius Duffy, the man who refuses Briggs and the women food and a bed in his hotel in The Homesman (2014)

Hailee Steinfeld as Tabitha Hutchinson, the young girl George Briggs befriends in The Homesman (2014)

Hilary Swank as Mary Bee Cuddy, realizing she’s been riding in circles in a winter storm in The Homesman (2014)

Hilary Swank as Mary Bee Cuddy, realizing she’s been riding in circles in a winter storm in The Homesman (2014)

Hilary Swank as Mary Bee Cuddy and Tommy Lee Jones as George Briggs in a dispute with one of the husbands in The Homesman (2014)

Tommy Lee Jones as George Briggs, rescuing the three women from the river in The Homesman (2014)