Place of Bones

A woman and teenage daughter are forced to defend themselves when an injured man attracks outlaws to their homestead.

This is a very B movie. The storyline is quite predictable but attempts to put a little twist on the ending. The writing, character development and overall atmosphere leaves a lot to be desired. Poor dialog, uninteresting characters and forced acting feels cringy, unnatural and much like a community theater performance. I felt myself forcing interest to finish watching it. The twist also falls flat.

This is not a film I'll be recommending to anyone unless they're just looking for something challenging to watch from beginning to the end.

This was a decent western, and I am not into western movies generally due to the slanted views of Indigenous Americans and the Misogynist treatment of women.

That being said, I found this one watchable, but not without plot holes and actions by the women that seems off base due to their circumstances.

The male antagonist lived up to their roles of being of the same mindset of right-wing maganuts. So I commend them on their acting chops. I didn't like any of them, so they did an excellent job.

Other than some of the antics by the daughter and two gapping plot holes, I quite enjoyed this.

Oh yeah, the twist at the end was nifty and after it came up I had an Aha moment.

It is years after the Civil War. Pandora (Heather Graham) and her daughter Hester are living on an isolated desolate ranch. Her husband is dead and buried on a nearby hillside. They are always watching out for intruders. They find a wounded bank robber followed by more criminals looking for the stolen loot.

There is a flatness to this western. There is something missing. I couldn't put my finger on it until the final revelation. The movie keeps hinting on something sinister, but it never says it out loud until the end. I couldn't feel anything for any of these characters because I could never be sure about them. While the ending is interesting, it's a long flat wait to get there.

What to say about this film? Be patient? It's almost worth watching, using your valuable time on this planet, just to see the twisted finale. I consumed only 3/4 of this film before bed, before I couldn't take anymore. I was disappointed. Other than a really cool Smith & Wesson Schofield, beautiful stained glass windows and some sudden, unexpected graphic violence, it was rather slow with poor acting. Then I watched the remainder, the next morning, with a good cup of coffee. Things changed overnight, creating a hunger that allowed me to see some of the value in "Place of Bones". Likely, the greatest problem was the scarce budget. Not sure how they could afford Heather Graham, as Pandora, or why she agreed? Perhaps times are thin, she needed to stalk her freezer? Or, maybe she's just a actor who likes to have a bit of fun, feeding her appetite for a western from time to time (see "The Last Son" 2021 for better fare). Tom Hopper, as Bear John and leader of the baddies,was the weakest character in my humble opinion. Even his costume sucked, especially the modern cowboy hat. The story has some great potential but similar tales, films, already exist. One in particular comes to mind, one that is much better but I'm not going to spoil this film for you. Kudos to the rest of Bear John's gang as, they were cool characters with sweet costumes. Liked Zachary Keller as Little Pete and totally missed the awesome MMA star Donald Cerrone as Minor Wilson; until I started investigating the film further. They all did a reasonable job being good black hats. A short call out to Ray Abruzzo as Lester. Though he is only in the film briefly, his characters dress and deportment come across really well, making you wish you had more. This film takes a lot of time before it redeems itself? If can't recommend it, except to starving western fans like myself, who keep devouring anything in the genre. There is some fun to be had here but you have to be quite patient, and hungry.

Great acting. Great dialogue. Great storyline. Great cinematography.

At first it seems like a basic movie with low budget, but when you have great acting and special FX that works, a basic movie turns into} something special like this. Under normal circumstances, you'd expect to get bored with so much dialogue, but I didn't experience that with this movie. The dialogue was funny, it was intelligent and interesting. The twist at the end was surprising even though it really didn't have anything to do with the actually occurrence in the movie.

All in all, it's a pretty decent Western, give it a chance.