This really hit me in the heart, and stomach, several times during the movie, and finally when walking out, I felt such anger, and sadness washing over me, lost in a my head, listen to other patrons thin analysis already fading as they exited, I was still lost in the iciness of the Res, the hopeful, and bleak snow consuming all. I am really close with Native families on a Res here, lived up there for a time, as a teenager, and the first girl I fell in love with was Native, so the material is close to me already, I've also read for a long time about violence, sexual esp. concerning Native women, and the lack of justice or attention they receive.
Sheridan's direction is mostly first rate, and has a tense, atmospheric, clip that moves the story along, while leaving room for it to breathe, in it's beautiful and haunting setting, let the score, (also beautiful and haunting) whisper out during a few scenes. The acting is all amazing, from Renner to the broken, proud, Martin, his desperate, lost son, and the Chief. Olsen does well, though I do think her character's writing is one of the films few, but noteworthy missteps. There is a sense of foreboding and violence lurking everywhere, from the bloodied livestock, the remote location, and finally the hunter finding the body of a young woman, raped, and exposed to the elements, dying alone under the stars.
There is a frenetic sense of desperation and darkness in the scene in the meth house, the characters felt and looked real, besides a few critques regarding the action, Renner's dispatching of the two with a shovel, felt out of another movie. And Olsen's incident was a little over the top. The scenes of the convoy invoke Sheridan's work in "Sicario", the perhaps doomed, noble people, on a mission they believe in, doing their jobs, with a sense of fatalism and world weariness, which permeates the entire movie. Very Michael Mann esque also, the shots of the snowbound convoy approaching the camp.
The sense of violence, cruelty, and sickness is slowly revealed as they encounter the security team, and I filled in some blanks before the movie got there. The slight sense of violence, guns unholsters, sharp and pointed, nervous responses, and the flaring of tempers, men already of the edge, of themselves, and civilization itself. The scenes inside the cabin, from sweet and sad, to brutal and wrenching, terrifying, unbearable, as the lurid hypermasculinity, mixed with alcohol, savagery, and the cowardice of men, the evil lurking in some of them, to defile, to brutalize, to take. Panic, and helplessness and anger, as the escalation ratchets up, what you know, but hate, as it comes. Very effective way to play it.
The climax is well handled, raw violence, and killing, no escapes, no mercy, just a fight to the death, in a place removed from the world. The penultimate scenes, of revenge, just a bit too Hollywood. The final scenes are heartbreaking and hopeful, raw emotion, pain, and healing.
*The Olsen character was badly written, not acted, and I think felt close to taking me out of the movie, she did not move or act like an FBI agent. Not convincing.
* Renner's character could have been Indian, and the movie doesn't miss a thing, though his work was very good.
*The mask scene at the end, I felt had a line that maybe should have been but, seemed too "white" and played for the wrong kind of laughs.
*Regarding the post shootout scene, there is a queasy sense of "revenge fantasy", that I think the rest of the film transcends.
*A few lines felt off, and the scene in the cabin, had a graphic moment or two I felt wasn't needed.
I felt the movie had some real flaws, that in the hands of a lesser director or writer would have been close to fatal, but I walked away thinking this would likely be one of my favorites of the year.