Land will hit different people differently and it’s probably exactly how star Robin Wright would like it. The esteemed actress also makes her directorial debut with the hauntingly powerful flick about a woman whose desire to get away from people lands her in a remote mountainous corner of Wyoming. She’s purchased a log cabin and is surrounded by a lot of the titular stuff—just how she wants it.
Despite being prepared (at least she thought she was), Wright’s Edee quickly finds that she is way over her head and that first winter might very well get the best of her. If not for the happenstance that finds Miguel (Demián Bichir) walking past her “path,” she would have perished from starvation, hypothermia, and any number of other issues that formed a perfect storm of elements that even though she was found, it isn’t guaranteed that she will survive.
Miguel phoned a nurse friend of his, who came out to Edee’s cabin and saved her life. Alawa (Sarah Dawn Pledge) wants her to go to the hospital where she works, but even though she can barely speak, one thing is clear—she has no intention of going to any hospital. Someone isn’t suicidal, per se, but if death enters her realm, it’s not like she’d mind. What would cause someone to find themselves in such a place and in such a manner?
From the film’s opening moments (which found her in therapy, pushed there by her sister Emma (Kim Dickens)), it is clear that Edee has experienced a life-shaking trauma that has emotionally scarred her, she thinks, beyond repair. Without telling a soul, she packs everything she thinks she needs in a U-Haul trailer, rents a car, and heads west. She is so done with society that she pleads with the man who sold her the cabin to take the trailer and rental car back for her—despite the fact that he says it’s downright dangerous not to have a vehicle being so remote. That, it’s pretty clear, is the point.
Land is an incredibly moving story, from beginning to end, and makes for an astonishing cinematic directorial first effort from Wright, who has been starring in films since 1983 and cut her directing teeth helming episodes of her hit Netflix series, House of Cards. She and cinematographer Bobby Bukowski have teamed to bring audiences some of the most gloriously gorgeous wilderness shots ever captured on screen. Some may think that the landscape is so stunningly beautiful, simply pointing the camera and letting nature do the rest would be a filmmaker and her cinematographer’s modus operandi. Think again.
Bukowski and Wright frame each shot with an artist’s touch that goes beyond greatness. They also have incredible patience to wait and capture nature, and all of the cabin’s surroundings, with an eye for every frame of film enhancing and elevating the story’s message, tone, and above all else—an emotive takeaway that is immediate and righteously overwhelming. The best directors have always said in the end, it always is about the story. With her debut, Wright exemplifies that sentiment that all the natural glory in the world does nothing if there is not a tether between the heart of the audience and those living their lives onscreen.
With Land, Wright has the benefit of working from an original script from Jesse Chatham and Erin Dignam, the latter first worked with her 30 years ago on the drama Denial: The Darker Side of Passion! The duo has painted a masterclass in character creation and evolution. For much of the film, it is Edee flying solo—most often, flailing in her effort to master her new surroundings. Lucky for them, they have an actress in Wright who can say so much with simply her face. Also, the writers brilliantly gave us enough exposition in those opening moments of the film that, even though we don’t know what happened to her that makes her so desperately sad and despondent, through the talents of the writing pair’s lead actress not much else really needs to be said.
When another character finally crosses Edee’s path, the script becomes about something a little different than woman vs. nature (and her past). Here is a man in Miguel, who hunts in the area, and thus how he wound up coming upon her cabin that had no smoke coming from its chimney… even though it was below freezing outside. Their relationship evolves in the most organically warm and endearing way. It is never romantic, thank goodness, but it is immensely and believably potent. Edee makes it clear that Miguel can mentor her in the art of survival, but there is a catch. No news from the outside world. Ever. He respects that.
Witnessing Miguel imparting his wisdom to her on the finer points of trapping, hunting, fishing, and even splitting firewood, is so simultaneously touching and informative. It is a miracle of storytelling, immensely informed filmmaking, concise and precise screenwriting, and a lesson in survival that dates back to the Bible. Remember that whole bit about giving a man a fish or teaching him how to fish? That is the essence of Miguel and Edee’s friendship and to experience it evolves into a true once-in-a-lifetime friendship is at the core of what makes Land so vibrant. After all, this is a woman who wanted nothing to do with humans.
The actress and Bichir have a connection that is precise in its palpability. Both actually say so much with so little. But it is when their friendship evolves and Edee lets this individual into her closed-off emotional headspace, the film experiences a breath of fresh air that rivals that breeze running through those evergreens that dominate the scenery.
Bichir is mesmerizing from the get-go (as he has been since we first discovered him in Weeds in 2008 and his Oscar-nominated turn in the stunning A Better Life in 2011). Simply seeing him with his boots and cowboy hat, he is Miguel from the inside out. It’s the little things. How he carries himself, his selfless act of saving her life, and when asked by her at one point why he did what he did, he simply says, “because you were in my path.” This is a man who lives by a credo that involves being there for people when they need—whether they want it or not—and paying it forward without anything ever happening to him to spur the paying! His Miguel is some of the actor’s best work, and yes, that is saying something.
Considering that Wright is the film’s first-time director and this remote shoot had to have a laundry list of challenges and issues, the fact that her performance at the heart of the film is so extraordinary may be the most impressive endeavor in the actress’s esteemed career. She has crafted a character that is relatable—even if what she undertakes is not something a majority of us would even consider—on so many different planes. We pull for her to succeed, sure, but most importantly, we cheer for her to rise above the paralyzing suffering she has endured and to triumph with this journey called life.
Actors and actresses undertaking the effort to also direct is nothing new in Hollywood. It’s almost a cliché. “What I really want to do is direct.” I mean, who hasn’t heard that a million times? To bare one’s soul, as Wright does with Land, and to concurrently be the person responsible for bringing the entire endeavor to light, could not have been easy. Let’s just say this. As supremely gifted of an actress as she is, let’s just say this, she matches that aptitude behind the camera.
Her Land is a must-see and will find people discovering different connections with her character, all as the result of us each bringing our own unique life baggage to the table. One thing remains constant and that is that when all is said and done, Wright’s directorial debut leaves every soul who experiences it looking at their life and everything that encompasses a wee bit differently. Some may want to get to work on long-lost hopes and dreams. Others, it will reinforce that the choices made across a lifeline were the right ones. Either way, the film will spur an introspective gaze in the mirror that may be difficult. Yet, through the triumph of Wright—both behind the camera and in front of it—we all will be better for it.
Grade: A