Land Movie Review

Land (2021)

Rent Land on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Jesse Chatham and Erin Dignam
Directed by: Robin Wright
Starring: Robin Wright, Demián Bichir, Sarah Dawn Pledge
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
A bereaved woman seeks out a new life, off the grid in Wyoming.

Verdict
The underlying idea isn't bad, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. A couple rather egregious mistakes early on set up the rest of the movie at the expense of credibility. Her ability and plan always seem like a movie conceit. This feels a lot like a vanity project. Being Wright's directorial debut while also starring in a movie that has few other characters, it seem like exactly that.
Skip it.

Review
This is Robin Wright's directorial debut. I always have to wonder how effective one can direct when they also star in the movie.

Edee (Robin Wright) just wants to be left alone and decides to live in the wilderness. We don't know why, but in movies like this that's always the hook to keep you intrigued. Does she have the skills to survive without modern conveniences? You can only learn so much from a book and it turns out she's not prepared for this adventure. What's the end game? The movie hasn't provided much plot other than she wants to be alone.

Robin Wright and Demián Bichir play Edee and Miguel

It's pretty countryside, but this is a case where I wish the movie abandoned typical movie constraints and became more of a nature documentary with macro shots of birds, insects, etc. I wish it tried to convey the wonder of nature.

This is a sparse, lonely movie with someone failing over and again. It's one thing if this was like Into the Wild where someone rejects society, but this is too morose for its own good. It's emotionally manipulative.

At best Edee starts in the summer, at worst fall. It's not until winter that she decides to hunt, and she has no practice whatsoever. She's had time to practice. She also stocked no wood for the winter. What wood she does have she keeps in the snow. She may not be knowledgeable about roughing it. I'll grant that some mistakes are going to happen, but not stockpiling firewood is stupid. You'd have to be a moron to not, that or creating an emotionally manipulative movie.

The way this transition to her requiring assistance is frustrating. What is she going to do with wet firewood? The whole point is to get her needing help, but it's overly dramatic and not credible.

The passage of time didn't feel as long as it actually was. While I did see three winters, it didn't feel like it. It's the movie speeding up time just to get to the end. This movie can be clunky. The friendship felt more superficial than the plot would have us believe. It has a good idea, but it's not well executed. This could have her passing out due to just undernourishment instead of going out into a blizzard for wet firewood. The lack of skills seems silly for what she's undertaking, and then she quickly learns it all. It's a movie about survival, but it seems like a survivalist was not involved at all. Someone like that could lend the storytelling credibility.