![]() ![]() Violence could erupt at any moment with a man as tightly wound as him. Phil's threats chill the bone, as do his acts of kindness. Here, she frames the characters against the grand expanse of the wild west, with New Zealand standing in for Montana the imposing landscape perhaps causing men to toughen up just as much as the ways in which they've been socialized.Ĭumberbatch's performance commands attention from the start as we watch his facade chip away from one scene to the next. The film has sparse dialogue and gorgeous cinematography by Ari Wegner, who impressed me with her unforgettable work on In Fabric. That mystery and tension had me in its grip from beginning to end. You wonder if Phil's atoning for past grievances or setting a trap for this ill-treated kid. The push-pull of his relationship with Peter takes over the second half of the film. Through Rose and Peter, we witness the crushing effects bullying has on them, while through Phil, we see how his adopting a patriarchal stance has crushed his soul, along with everybody else's. On a break from his college medical studies, Phil soon joins them as well, creating an unhealthy dynamic in the Burbank household. ![]() ![]() When George takes a liking to Rose, eventually marrying her and bringing her back to the ranch, Phil feels threatened by her presence, labeling her a gold digger. Although Rose doesn't have the agency to defend her son, she clearly won't soon forget this attack. Phil and his posse instantly key into Peter's lisp, the way he holds his napkin, and his penchant for making paper flowers, leading to an onslaught of homophobic slurs. At a stopover on a cattle drive one day, they encounter Rose (Kirsten Dunst) and her lanky, effeminate son Peter (Kodi Smitt-McPhee), who prepare and serve food to the guests. While George adopts a mannered, genteel persona, Phil, physically rigid and hard-staring, is one cigarette away from being the Marlboro Man. Adapted from Thomas Savage's 1967 novel, Campion delivers a slow, stately, and stunning depiction of how unchecked machismo has continued to impact society.īenedict Cumberbatch plays Phil Burbank, who with his brother George (Jesse Plemons) operates a successful ranch in 1925 Montana. Injecting homoeroticism into the Western genre is nothing new, with The Sisters Brothers and Brokeback Mountain being just a couple of somewhat recent examples, but the great Jane Campion's long-awaited return to features, The Power Of The Dog, feels fresh due to its fascinating tone and examination of today's hot button issue of toxic masculinity. Western Side Story - Film Review: The Power Of The Dog ★★★★1/2 Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or a plot twisting further into menace? Then Phil appears to take the boy under his wing. His mockery of her son is more overt, amplified by the cheering of Phil's cowhand disciples. As Phil swings between fury and cunning, his taunting of Rose takes an eerie form - he hovers at the edges of her vision, whistling a tune she can no longer play. ![]() Phil behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, reveling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter - all except his brother George, who comforts Rose then returns to marry her. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose, the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter. The Burbank brothers are wealthy ranchers in Montana. All of Phil's romance, power and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land: He can castrate a bull calf with two swift slashes of his knife he swims naked in the river, smearing his body with mud. Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank is brutally beguiling. ![]()
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