The Power of the Dog...

The Power of the Dog

The Power of the Dog is a new film on Netflix that stars Benedict Cumberbatch

and ooh is it something else. It is directed by Jane Campion and is meant to kind of resemble an old western movie though it turns out to be more of like a psychological thriller. It is adapted from a book that came onto the scene in the late 1960’s but is set in the 1920’s. The film follows a rancher, Phil (Cumberbatch), as his brother, George (Jesse Plemons), marries a widowed inn-owner, Rose (Kirsten Dunst), and her and her son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), are brought into his life. This is a subtle film, maybe too subtle. I love the subtle movies, though, where everything is so subtle that you have to research and do some do-diligence in order to learn about what happened in a film or what certain elements mean. As such, I will give a brief explanation of the film, so if you don’t want that, skip this part of the review.

Peter is not masculine in an outward fashion. This encourages Phil to tease him and poke fun at him. What we learn about Phil, though, is that he had some kind of relationship, whether it was sexual or not we don’t know, with a former rancher who has passed away. This causes turmoil for Peter’s mother, Rose, so George comforts her, falling in love with her. They get married. Phil does not like or trust her so he begins to mentally torture her, like by stopping her from practicing the piano. She slowly becomes an alcoholic. Phil befriends Peter after seeing how confident he is and how comfortable he is in his own skin. This drives Rose mad and she sells some pelts that Phil was saving for himself. All the while, Peter has been devising a plan to kill Phil as revenge for his mother. When Phil is angry about his pekts being gone, Peter gives his pelts to Phil. Not knowing that the animals who once possessed the pelts had anthrax, Phil uses the pelts, gets anthrax into his bloodstream, and dies a fast death.

This film starts a conversation toward masculinity in a way that I was a great fan of. The idea that men, in that era, were supposed to be big, muscular, dirty, outdoor workers is something that can easily be related to today. All men are supposed to me messy, like video games, love sports, love camping and being dirty, hate the theater, and be reluctant to share their feelings. We never learn the sexual idenity of Peter which throws sexual idenity out as a topic of conversation relatable to this issue. As boys, though, we learn the archetype that in order to be a man, we have to have certain qualities. This film shows us the results that can come from giving into society's pressures and acting the part, like Phil and the results that can come from being yourself, like Peter and, in a way, George as he separates himself from Phil and his outspoken ways.

Something that I LOVE about this film is the way the film starts out with you hating Phil but by the end of the film, you end up feeling for him and loving him in such a childlike way. You just want to hold his head on your lap and stroke his head. I love when films change your opinion of a character. That is one of the reasons why I love films so much. Films are able to reach parts of our brains and influence us in ways that other mediums just aren’t able to. The fact that films are able to do that is really fascinating to me.

The film is beautiful! Man, you can see why Montana is called “Big Sky country.” The film just really highlights the sky and the ground. The colors are saturated in a way where everything seems darker to accommodate the bright sun. There are shots of huge herds of cattle running as well as shots that show the deep brown colors that can often be associated with the west.

The acting, I thought was good. Alright, just alright. No, I take that back. The acting was great! The only problem that I seemed to have was with Benedict Cumberbatch. Ah! I know! Well, there were just a couple scenes when he was talking where his accent sounded a little British and not southern. But really, though, those instances were few and far between. Given that he was able to give a convincing southern accent for most of the film (I mean, I couldn’t even do that), I would say that it was a great acting performance.

Kirsten Dunst was great as Rose. She seemed so miserable, I would definitely not want to feel that tortured all the time. I watched an interview with her where she talked about how playing Rose was not a fun experience, just because she was so unhappy, and that really came across in her performance. I love Jesse Plemons! I think he is so good at acting and he is a part of so many things! He is such a versatile actor but for some reason, he has not been recognized. Kodi Smit-McPheeis eerily good as Peter! He just loves his mother so much and wants to protect her so badly that he does crazy stuff to do so! It is great!

I really enjoyed this film! I’ve gone back and watched it again because by the time you get to the end, you learn things that are fun to notice as you watch it again. It’s one of those films. Be sure and go watch it on Netflix.