Jane Campion returns to directing with this exquisite adaptation about two very different but well-to-do ranching brothers in early 20th-Century Montana and the impact on them when one of them marries a widower with a sensitive teenage son. It is recognisably a Campion film - glacially slow and fearless in its use of beautiful stillness, impeccably composed on screen (with everything centred), the juxtaposition of man and the power of his environment, characters reliant solely on each other for their existence - and both the story and its setting allows the director to play to her strengths beautifully. As an exploration of character, the screenplay, co-written by the director and the original author, is skilfully and carefully written to peel back the layers of initially obvious types, and the interplaying power struggles are handled with subtlety and precision. It is, therefore, a gift to its talented cast, led by an extraordinary laser-sharp performance from Benedict Cumberbatch, with an interesting strong dynamic from real-life couple Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons in their respective roles and a challenging role for Kodi Smit-McPhee as the put-upon young man who slowly manages to make some sense of the world in which he finds himself with devastating consequences. The film will not suit all viewers - it requires considerable patience - but it is by turns powerful, beautiful and quite stunning in its execution.
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