El poder del perro

If one makes a character drama then one needs 2 things:

1 Great characters. They succeeded somewhat in portraying true to life characters, with good acting performances.

2 Intense drama. NONE is to be found though. What a bummer.

So what we have here is a polished portrait of good actors in a story that simply never becomes a real human drama. Simply lacklustre. Kinda tedious. Such a pity of the waste of many good actors...

Very well made western, Greenwood's atmospheric soundtrack creates great tension to the scenes. Strong performances from Benedict Cumberbatch in a unconventional role and supporting cast impressive, Dunst, Plemons, particularly Kodi Smit-McPhee.

Found the film to be an engaging watch.

According to Google one of the meanings of subtle is "making use of clever and indirect methods to achieve something".

My reading of this film is that the thing Jane Champion is trying to achieve is to show us the invisible.

I think she is primarily trying to to demonstrate how bullying and intimidation can happen in almost invisible ways.

There is very little obvious physical bullying or intimidation here. But instead a picture of how the subtle use of language and non-verbal behaviour can devastate lives.

While the story is set in a remote time (1925) and a remote place (a ranch in Montana, USA) it therefore has every relevance to today - relevance to every family situation where are those subtleties can occur.

It is said 'The Power of the Dog' covers themes such as love, grief, resentment, jealousy, masculinity, and sexuality. Homosexuality, to be exact. Or should I say, the film is very open to the suggestion of homosexuality, but it never really surfaces - almost like a 70's movie.

I generally don't favour drama films, and the only reason I decided to watch 'The Power of the Dog' is because it received an amazing 562 award nominations (winning 250 so far), and because I like Benedict Cumberbatch as an actor. The film received an incredible 12 Oscar award nominations. So let's look at this film.

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as a rancher, Phil, who runs a ranch together with his brother, George (Jesse Plemons). Phil is insensitive, rude and crude (lets just call him butch!), while George is quite the opposite. George falls in love and eventually marries Rose (Kirsten Dunst). Her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is gay - or a faggot, as they call him in the movie. This causes Phil to constantly mock him in front of his workers.

The film does have significant character development and there's lots to read between the lines, since the film tells its story in a very subtle manner. I must be honest, from an entertainment perspective, I wasn't all that entertained. In fact, I was pretty bored for the first 40 minutes. It moves along too...darn...slow...

It really also is uneventful until the final reveal. (well, also not much of a reveal, as you sort of have to guess what they're trying to convey.) Apart from character study, there's hardly anything significant happening here. I was bored - just as I was with the highly acclaimed 'Brokeback Mountain' (although 'Brokeback' was a lot more in your face and not as toned down as 'The Power of the Dog'.)

I can't help but wonder what prompted critics to adorn the film with so many awards. Is the high acclaim truly justified? Or is this overrated? For me, definitely. I agree, the film is beautifully shot with stunning cinematography. The set decoration is also incredibly well done, and the costumes are great. But is it that great a movie? Not for me....

Would I watch it again? No.

I just randomly watched this movie, not knowing anything about it at all, just that I like Benedict as an actor. It was slow and sort of unsettling and I had to ponder the movie for a while after it finished. Let me just say this, the devil is in the details with this one. Pay very close attention when watching it, I think it pays off pretty well. I had several 'oh crap' moments after the movie, when I started connecting the dots. To call this a Western is a bit misleading, the setting is in the west (Montana) but that really has nothing to do with the movie at all, nor should it define its genre. I can see how folks might not like this one due to the pacing and some of the subject matter but the acting really is quite good and the movie is well made. Also, let's just say the ending might pass right over some people's head if they hadn't been paying attention or had already made up their mind what the movie was about. I'd really love to say more but spoilers and all. I think this one will start out slow with audiences but will age well over time.