Wind River follows a cast of individuals who are attempting to track down answers in the mysterious death of a young local woman. The characters felt somewhat molded and cliché, but that isn’t such a bad thing. You have an stoic Indian Affairs police cheif, a divorced dad (who happens to be a bad ass) and an ‘out-of- her-league’, city girl, FBI agent. Each has their own view on life, and as the movie lulls you into sort of predicting what each character might say or do, they frequently surprise you in their decision making.
After watching the Academy Award, “Hell or High Water‘, I was expecting… well, a lot. Wind River didn’t let me down, it just felt slower than I expected. Not too mention, living up to a near perfect 99% on Rotten Tomatoes is a steep task for any film or film maker. Jeremy Renner has quite a few extended dialogue scenes in Wind River. It almost felt preachy at times. No doubt, they helped to explain his backstory and gave motivation to actions, but I felt they could have left more up to the audience’s imagination.
What really stands out in Wind River is the lengths the production went to make the violence feel real. When corpses are found, lifeless in the snow, it looks and feels genuine. Bullets that strike their intended targets don’t look like cheap blood packs. Facial scabs on drug users seem so life like and believable, it comes across the screen viscerally. Fair warning, some of the scenes in this movie are not for the faint. All of this adds to intimate nature of the picture.
Overall, Wind River is excellent entry into the 2017 catalog. Similar to Hell or High Water, I was completely unaware on the movie, until I stumbled upon it by random word of mouth. This is exactly the way I learned of Hell or High Water, and enjoyed both movies. Was it as good as two cowboys robbing banks to save their family farm? No. Was the story about a Fish and Wildlife ranger hunting a murdered and redemption for his own loss a damn fine one? As sure as Wyoming is vast, the answer is a solid yes.