"We're all playing our parts now. This was written long before we got here."
Do not expect "Meek's Cutoff" to get anything from the Academy at the end of the year, because I doubt many will be passionate enough about it to give it the light of day. It has already been pegged as the "boring film of 2011", and that is surely something of an apt description of it. After all, by unadvanced moviegoer standards, not all that much really happens. It starts with them already on their journey, and it ends with them having not finished their journey. In between them an entirety of one new character is introduced. The fascination about this film isn't these massive events, but about the intimate exchanges between person and person.
The film follows a group of settlers on the Oregon Trail, all being led by one Stephen Meek who hasn't been doing the best job thus far. Only minutes into the film, the families are debating on whether or not to hang the man. Meanwhile Meek remains rather ambiguous in character and intent, agreeing on the courses his employers choose, be it a bit reluctantly. Things really start igniting when they gain hold of a Native American resident whom Meek assumes means to brutally murder them. One of the wives, Emily Tetherow, is cautious of either character, but knows which one of them has led her more astray thus far.
