Two strong performances from Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank do much to lift this rather simple, plodding, story but sadly in the end, it seemed to me to be a very thinly spread amalgam of stories that lacked any real substance and was, frankly, quite depressing. Swank is "Mary Bee Cuddy" who is looking after three women who have, for various reasons, found the pioneering life of the wild west beyond them and pretty much lost the plot, psychologically speaking. Being a good Christian, she decides to relocate these women into the care of a distant church. Meantime, TLJ is the drifter "George Briggs" whom she happens upon strung up from a tree. She releases him on condition that he helps her escort her charges, and off we go on a perilous trek. The cinematography is gorgeous - it's great at conveying not just the scale of the country they are crossing, but also of the harshness of the wintry conditions they must endure as they travel. Their lengthy journey, though, really robs the film of any pace, and the inevitable bonding of the two after some initial suspicion is just too predictable - and uncomfortable to watch. It's not without it's tragedy, but somehow even that didn't resonate much and by the time it reached it's conclusion I felt that I'd been watching two hours with something missing... It is beautifully crafted film with a good accompaniment from Marco Beltrami, but I'm not sure I'll ever watch it again.
