Place of Bones

This is obviously going to try and be one of those gritty, how it really was, Westerns. You know the type - the poverty, the danger, the dirt, the easy way men kill others. Then you quickly realise this is not gritty like American Primeval or 1823 are.

The best actor by far is Corin Nemec who plays a man, Calhoun, who's been shot and is found by a mother and daughter who live in a wooden shack with barely any furniture or change of clothes but the shack does have a large window of stained glass panels. Why? The shack is in a rocky valley - so how do they grow crops and where are the animals? No horses, cows, not even a chicken. Perhaps it was a very tight budget that couldn't stretch to livestock!

By being there, Calhoun has brought trouble and there is the inevitable misunderstandings, gun fight and deaths.

I did not see the end coming and it is almost worth watching the film for that, otherwise, really don't bother.

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.

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 was quite clichéd throughout. A desperate widow and her daughter live alone in the middle of nowhere, with no horses or obvious farming-just a grave for her deceased husband and nothing else. I thought the girl was feeding chickens, but there are no chickens to be fed; she's just scattering small stones around. One day they end up with a con man and a bunch of stolen money in their cabin. How will they survive the real bad guys who are after the con man? I watched with many questions until, at the very end, everything falls into place. This is one of those movies where you can expect a sequel. Just for the ending, my rating goes from 5 to 8.

A mother and daughter are struggling to survive in the wild frontier when a stranger appears in desperate need of help along with a bag ill-gotten gains along with a band of unsavory characters that put to test the ladies determination and strength. This Western thriller stars Heather Graham (Pandora), Brielle Robilliard (Hester), Corin Nemec (Calhoun), Tom Hopper (Bear John), Donald Cerrone (Minor Wilson), David Lipper (Ed Singletary), Gattlin Griffith (Cherokee Jack). The film is well directed by Audrey Cummings. Richard Taylor wrote this frightening and disturbing western that tapped into this western genre that you rarely see that we need more of. I mean just when you think the direction the film is going it turns on a dime making you think what the heck just happened. The music score just adds to this film it is so good. The acting is so good that I wanted more. Enjoy this film.