Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Samiam3 The Homesman starts out with a clear sense of direction, and it maintains that direction for the first hour. Then a strange and unwarranted turn of events throw the movie off track and the last several scenes rob it any integrity or meaning. It gets to where it was supposed to go, minus any climax or resolution. What we are left with is little more than a two hour cue card lesson about some of the Unkindness of the Frontier.The premise involves Swank volunteering to transport three crazed widows across miles of unsettled land to a hospital. She employs Jones as a body guard in exchange for saving him from the noose Though somewhat heavy in mannerism, Hilary Swank gives a strong performance, as does Tommy Lee Jones. Swank is battling some inner emotional turmoil that earns our sympathy, so when the script writes her out in a contrived manner, we are left feeling dumbfounded. Jones is left to finish the job, but the movie fails to showcase his personal investment, or give us a reason why he would bother. There is a creepy and grizzly scene where he resorts to arson in order to steal food for his harem. When he reaches the end of his journey he is welcomed by a curiously cast Merryl Streep playing a relatively flat, five minute role that is far from top billing. There is nothing formally wrong with her performance, its just that her reputation is overwhelms the scene. It would be similar like watching Justin Bieber play at a retirement home. She and Jones have a nice exchange and then the movie ends on a bizarre and emotionally void note that reminds us that all the proceedings have amounted to virtually nothing. It started as one picture and ends as another.

freydis-e This whole thing is spoilers really – as other reviews demonstrate, if you get to caring about the Swank character, you will be hugely disappointed, even hurt by this and it's one case where it might be worth knowing what you're getting into. It's written by, produced by, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones and therein lies the problem.The start doesn't make a whole lot of sense. A bunch of frontier women (only women) simultaneously go mad and have to be taken back east. Meanwhile Hilary Swank is too 'plain' for any man to marry her. Take a look at her photo on the video cover and compare her with the married women of the community to see how ridiculous that is. Then it starts to build some steam. Her strong character ("You're as much of a man as any man around here," says the local preacher) takes charge and volunteers to do a job which none of the men can handle. She rescues Jones' character from being hanged and, despite knowing nothing about him, forces/bribes him to help her on the journey.So far this has been pretty good, OK bleak and not always believable but, as usual, Swank's performance is quite brilliant, Jones does his usual uninspiring but solid job and the supporting cast do fine. Jones is directing well too early on, pacing things nicely and building an authentic feel. We have plenty to hope for, a character to care about, and a testing journey in prospect. It all goes wrong when the travellers run across a little girl's desolate grave.Suddenly and for no reason the Swank character is transformed. She's been boss all along but now she's doing what Jones tells her, bursting into tears, then, absurdly, proposing marriage to this unreliable and somewhat decrepit old man and virtually forcing herself on him sexually. The only explanation: she's crazier than the wagon-load of women she's supposed to be looking after. Next, forgetting her passionately-delivered promises to the relatives of those women, she kills herself. This goes beyond shaky and ridiculous to pointless and unbelievable and we realise that this is not Jones' take on a strong woman, but just another self-absorbed and self-centred vehicle for a writer-producer-director-star. In fact it went wrong earlier than that when the Jones character was introduced. From that point on he shows little interest in the plot or the other characters – everything is there only to provided the foils to his lead.I wasn't interested in Jones' rather dull and stereotyped playing of a dull, stereotyped character, nor in his self-absorption. I didn't watch any more, wished I'd never started watching in the first place and I hope this will help others avoid the same mistake.

Thunderman90210 Just another formula movie skip it.Meryl Streep is just phoning it in for another paycheck.People like Streep should just retire and change jobs.I think her political views are hurting her acting.She should just shut up and act.

alan-nutter This is a short comment to warn of a very disturbing scene in the first 15 minutes of this movie. It's a scene that'll stay with me for the next few days at least, I suspect and one I'll always think of if the subject of this film ever comes up going forward. If you can get past this, however, there is an otherwise decent, if mostly bleak, movie to be found. I say mostly because there are also some uplifting messages here if you look for them. Personally, I'm glad I watched it, but it certainly won't be for everyone. I marked these comments as a spoiler to be safe, although I've deliberately tried to write them so as not to give too much away.