"There is some very concerted image-making and mood-making in this technically accomplished yet unsatisfying drama from first-time, Norway-based director Dara Van Dusen. It is a sombre tale of the American old west, adapted by Dusen from the novel by Stewart O'Nan, and somehow has the feel of a short film indulgently taken to feature length. Its visual gestures and set pieces, although striking and often shocking, felt for me disconnected from any emotional truth a truth that sustained, developed storytelling may have provided."
"The setting is a frontier town in Wisconsin in 1870, and Jacob (Johnny Flynn) is both sheriff and pastor although he wears neither badge nor religious garment. He has seen traumatising service in the civil war, in which he appears to have achieved high rank, although some in the town are suspicious of his Norwegian background. He is married to Marta (Kristine Kujath Thorp) and they have a young child."
Directed by a Norway-based first-time filmmaker, the film is a sombre American old west drama set in an 1870 Wisconsin frontier town. Jacob, a former civil war officer who serves as both sheriff and pastor, confronts a returning war corpse and an ensuing diphtheria outbreak that threatens the community. The town debates quarantine versus secrecy while social tensions, suspicion of Jacob's Norwegian background, and his inability to enforce discipline exacerbate panic. The film features striking visual set pieces and shocking scenes of horror, yet foregrounds mood and imagery over sustained emotional storytelling, producing a technically accomplished but unsatisfying result.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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