Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald

Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the story. To eke out a living a civil war veteran travels from town to town reading the news to public gatherings. Along the way he picks up a girl who having been abducted and raised by Native Americans is now homeless.

He resolves to take her back to her aunt and uncle. Along the way they experience numerous and sometimes violent encounters. People here in the untamed old west are experiencing very hard times. There is no escaping that fact as the veteran (Tom Hanks) and girl (Helena Zengel) make their way cross country.

Parts of the story are grim, other parts are matter of fact, still others are uplifting. Mostly we get nuanced and sensitive storytelling here that could have, in lesser hands, been tiresomely maudlin or even occasionally played for laughs. Hanks’ performance is especially sensitive and not unlike the nuanced ship captain he played in Greyhound.

As in that film the story here involves traveling through hostile territory where danger lurks around every corner. There are moments of action here as well as spectacular landscapes but we seldom lose sight of these two people moving through the landscape.

There are also occasional striking images, including views of Native Americans traveling through the lands they are being expelled from. These scenes display them in an almost ghostlike fashion and are visually and emotionally striking.

Review copyright (c) 2021 by Dennis D. McDonald

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