Wind River is much more than just a crime thriller

ON THE surface, it’s about finding the killer of a murdered girl but this film has so much more going on.

TAYLOR Sheridan doesn’t do light and fluffy.

The Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Sicario and Hell or High Water has cut his teeth writing about honour-bound but compromised, taciturn men in pursuit of doing the right thing.

So it’s only fitting that Sheridan’s directorial debut revolves around another example of stoic masculinity.

Wind River, which he also penned, is ostensibly a tense crime thriller but it’s much more effective as a film about an unforgiving place and the people forced to contend with its natural brutality.

Corey Lambert (Jeremy Renner) is a wildlife officer, an expert tracker and marksman hunting big cats when he comes across the body of a young woman, the bright blue of her jacket stark against the white snow. She’s got no shoes or pants on and she’s miles away from any civilisation.

Because the body was found on the Wind River Native American reservation, the FBI sends a young agent, Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) to investigate. Jane, a Las Vegas-based agent originally from Florida, is not prepared for the blistering cold of this remote part of Wyoming.

Fully aware she’s unmatched for the elements and the isolated community, Jane recruits Corey to help her find the girl’s killer.

A different kind of stormtrooper. (Fred Hayes/The Weinstein Company via AP)

As far as the mystery goes, it’s fairly straightforward. But that’s not what Wind River is really about, the crime is only used as the device to propel the story and the characters.

Renner’s Corey is a decent man who understands the score, and one whose own past tragedy lends focus and authenticity to the story. The almost dialogue-free exchanges between Corey and the father of the murdered girl (Gil Birmingham) are some of the most thoughtful scenes of the film.

Sheridan’s Spartan approach to dialogue is one of the reasons his characters, even supporting ones that pop up for two minutes, are well-rounded. So much of the performances are on the face or in the body language, rather than relying on words like a crutch.

Sheridan is not afraid to use silence or let a moment hang, allowing Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ elegiac score to land.

Renner and Birmingham as two dads with too much in common. (Fred Hayes/The Weinstein Company via AP)

There’s a confidence to Wind River that belies Sheridan’s rookie status behind the camera. The cinematography is beautiful, from the drops of red blood against the snow to the gritty interiors of a drug house. The shots of the wilderness, all that white, feels vast but also claustrophobic at the same time, conveying how “trapped” these characters are, socially and geographically. There are not many ways out.

Sheridan has a particular talent for evoking a sense of place. In Hell or High Water, it was the economic despair seeped through West Texas. In Sicario, it was the lawlessness of the US/Mexico border in Arizona.

In Wind River, it’s the punishing weather and the violence and despair it breeds in people paint a harsh and almost unliveable existence. The effect is visceral.

It’s safe to say Sheridan has pulled off his first director gig.

Rating: 3.5/5

Wind River is in cinemas from today.

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Originally published as Wind River is much more than just a crime thriller