This arrangement is rudely broken by George, who takes a fancy to widow Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst) who runs a nearby restaurant and boarding house. They still share the same twin bedroom they slept in as boys. These two, ill-matched brothers have been living together for more than 20 years. Kirsten Dunst plays widow Rose Gordon, who hits the bottle hard in response to the relentless attacks of Benedict Cumberbatch’s character. He roams around the house in his heavy boots and tall hat, covered in honest grime. George is rarely seen in anything except a suit, but Phil has gone full cowpoke. Phil, played by Benedict Cumberbatch with American accent and attitude, is the lively, talkative one.
George – played by Jesse Plemons, who seems to specialise in stolid, silent, four-square characters – is stolid, silent and four-square. In the middle of nowhere they live in a mansion with multiple rooms, a sweeping staircase and the kind of dark wooden panelling that signifies wealth. Phil and George Burbank embody the contradictions of life on a remote property. By now the West has been won, but Montana still feels a long way from civilisation. Outside it’s all glare and sunlight, inside, nothing but gloom. Campion is warning us not to expect a tale of outdoor adventure: this is going to be a fiercely interiorised story. When it does, we feel the tension rise like a tremor on a seismograph.īenedict Cumberbatch, left, and Jesse Plemons play ill-matched brothers in 1920s Montana.Īlthough the Burbank brothers’ ranch sits on a vast plain surrounded by spectacular mountains, we begin – and end – by looking at the landscape though a window in a darkened room. It’s a reserved, distant affair, where the camera seems unwilling to get too close to the actors. Another reason is the uncompromising nature of the production. One good reason is that Jane Campion made The Power of the Dog for Netflix, where it may now be accessed from the comfort of one’s lounge room. When I saw this film at the cinema last week, there was hardly anybody in the theatre. It’s Home on the Range by Ingmar Bergman. Beyond these colourful props lies a dark, claustrophobic psychodrama. There’s even a brief appearance by a handful of tame, demoralised Native Americans.
The setting is the rugged wilds of Montana (even though the movie was shot in New Zealand), the characters are kitted out in chaps and cowboy hats. Don’t go along to The Power of the Dog expecting gunfights at the OK Corral.
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