Reviewed by Hannah Spencer.
Director: Jane Campion, 2021, Netflix, 125 mins.
This week’s review is a Netflix original, a shout out to the many Australians currently sick with COVID-19 or restricted to their homes.
The Power of the Dog is definitely not an obvious yapping chihuahua, but it could be likened to a lone wolf in the night, stalking you through the snow.
You didn’t see the death blow coming, but when you look back, the tracks are crystal clear.
Suffused with a sense of impending doom throughout, the final scene still leaves you blindsided.
Worth a second viewing, the signs were in fact there all along.
Generating Oscar buzz, Director Jane Campion (The Piano, Top of the Lake) is the hot ticket two win her second directorial Academy Award.
Last week taking out Golden Globes for Director of a Motion Picture, Best Drama Motion Picture and Best Supporting actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee).
Undersold as a Western, this film is a gripping psychological drama, rich in character study.
Due warning, it is difficult to delve into this film without letting a few spoilers slip.
Based on the 1967 novel by Thomas Savage, Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game, Doctor Strange) stars as Phil Burbank, a menacing but charismatic picture of toxic masculinity.
Together with his brother George (Jesse Plemons: I’m Thinking of Ending Things) they run the family’s profitable range in 1920s Montana where the two still share their childhood bedroom.
Phil, is a relentless bully to George but his need for control hides a fraught codependent relationship.
Phil’s tight hold on his brother is threatened when George marries the widower Rose (Kirsten Dunst: Melancholia, Bachelorette) mother to the effeminate young Peter (Australian, Kodi Smit-McPhee: Let the Right One In)
At the very first meeting of the four main characters, Phil sets light to a paper flower that Peter has lovingly crafted, foreshadowing the coming conflict.
Phil detests the effeminate “Miss Nancy” Peter and his relentless antagonizing of Rose will later see her crumble just like the paper flower under the flame.
Although strung with tension throughout, the restrained direction unfurls methodically.
What initially seems to be an overtly masculine portrayal by Cumberbatch reveals itself to be a performative hetero masculinity masking a gay man with potential childhood trauma.
An unexpected bond between Phil and the young Peter sets the familial tensions on an increasingly ominous path.
Jane Campion has made a commanding return to feature films after a 10-year hiatus.
A sparce script lets Campion to lean into the actors’ powerful performances, enhanced by the incredible mountain vista’s filmed in her native New Zealand.
This movie and its characters stay with you.
Please excuse me as I pop off to delve a little deeper and spend the rest of my Iso reading the original novel.
Hannah’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Following a limited release in theaters The Power Of The Dog is streaming on Netflix now.
