Actress Robin Wright, who previously directed 10 episodes of “House of Cards,” premiered her feature-directing debut “Land” tonight at the all-digital Sundance Film Festival.
Wright, who also wrote the screenplay, stars as Edee, a grieving woman who moves to the mountains “to get away from people.” She’s still haunted by the tragic deaths of her husband and child and believes that leaving the city life behind will help her healing process.
Renting out a deserted cabin in the lonesome Wyoming mountains, she quickly learns that surviving in such conditions, without phone, internet and electricity, is not a walk in the park. No kidding. Yes, she has a beautiful view of the snow-capped peaks, but, with no human life in sight, she has to fend for herself against the bleakness of wintry nature, and very ill-equipped to do so.
Then winter hits, and a bear attacks her shelter. Robbing her of all the food she had amassed over the last few months, a struggle for survival begins. The more the days go by, the more critical the situation gets —unless someone can suddenly show up and save the day, she will die.
Enter Miguel (Demian Bichir), who discovers her ailing freezing body lying on the cabin floor and, in the ensuing days, he nurses her back to health. Although, at first highly suspicious of Miguel’s generosity, a genuine friendship develops between the two. It turns out, gee whiz, that he too has been engulfed by tragedy in life. A connection springs eternal.
Wright and Bichir, both consummate actors, make the best of their pedantically obvious roles. Wright’s Edee feels too predictable, a character in search of some kind of soul-cleansing nirvana, but the relatability factor is a problem, especially when Edee makes one bad decision after another. Bichir, a world-class caliber actor, and Oscar-nominee, fares a bit better, sketching a man filled with a good natured and hushed nobleness.
And so, the more this connection develops, the less interested “Land” gets. What starts off as a near-silent survivalist epic turns into mushy sentiment and manipulative tearjerking. That’s really too bad because Wright, with the help of Bobby Bukowski‘s landscape-filled photography, initially immerses us into the nature-soaked setting — we can feel and breath Wyoming’s expansive open-aired vistas, the crackling pastures, and the harsh winters.
Whatever grit Wright achieves in the initial half hour is replaced by an all-too-predictable softness. The nightmares Edee has are replaced by dreamy visions of seeing her husband and son running alongside her in an unknown melancholic cornfield.
SCORE: C+