What an odd movie. I mean truly odd.
Watching it felt like we’d entered the cinema late and missed the beginning, and then someone forget to tack the end onto it. Now I need to say straight off that I like movies that are more experience-driven than narrative-driven, since you get to immerse yourself in a world that is simply happening before you, and this can be immensely rewarding providing the movie gets the characters just right and the atmosphere just so. Meek’s Cutoff did that, and on balance, I think I liked it, but what it lacked was an overwhelming reason to be.
Yes, it raised all sorts of issues from racism to cultural ignorance to a blind faith in the destiny of anything Western, and by extension, Christian, and certainly gave you much to think about, but it did suffer from a lack of any cohesive storyline, and any resolution at all. I have watched many movies with ambiguous, or ill-defined endings but at least they ended. There was some sense in those stories that while the characters may not have resolved everything – when does life ever truly give you that luxury? – that they had at least arrived at a definable point in the journey. No such sense with Meek’s Cutoff which simply ended.
As one wag quipped while the credits rolled, in reference to the film starting initially, playing a few minutes and then stopping (forcing a comical reboot on the cinema screen including Windows XP re-loading) , “I preferred the first film more.” You and me both, brother, you and me both!
- Saturday 2 July @ Dendy Newtown (with Warren, my guy, Fahmi, and Jono)