I don’t know about you, but even when I haven’t been immersed for days in the beauty and sophistication of a city like Venice, I want to head for the hills whenever I see sunbonnets in the opening shots of a movie. For that reason, the early moments of Kelly Reichardt’s ultra-quiet period drama Meek’s Cutoff had me worried. The picture is set in 1845 along the Oregon Trail — Reichardt’s home territory — and in its early moments we watch as three women in calico dresses cross a river on foot. One carries a basket on her head; another, a birdcage with a parakeet inside. As the third emerges from the water, we see that she’s pregnant. The other members of this little troupe include the women’s husbands and the pregnant woman’s preteen son, as well as a know-it-all guide who may, they fear, be leading them down the wrong path.
More:
Postcard from Venice: Michelle Williams (and Her Sunbonnet) Takes the Day in Meek’s Cutoff
