Wind River Movie Review

Wind River (2017)

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Written by: Taylor Sheridan
Directed by: Taylor Sheridan
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Graham Greene, Julia Jones, Jon Bernthal
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
A Fish & Wildlife agent helps an FBI agent investigate the murder of a young woman on a Wyoming Native American reservation in Wyoming.

Verdict
This starts out as a typical murder mystery, but slowly transforms into something much more engrossing. The story is solid throughout, but once the protagonists get close to the answers this kicks into high gear. What's impressive is the tension the movie is able to create. This made a mundane plot into something much more.
Watch it.

Review
Written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, he also wrote Hell or High Water (read my review). I'm quickly becoming a fan.

I like movies where the setting plays an integral factor into the plot. There's just something about snow, especially snow well done. This seems like it was shot on location, or at least in a snowy area. In the tough terrain of Wyoming a Wildlife officer, Corey, who lost a kid and a rookie FBI agent, Jane, try to apprehend a murderer.

Jeremy Renner plays Corey. Elizabeth Olsen plays Jane.

This has the usual construct of Corey and Jane following the clues while the characters slowly develop. This does have an interesting angle being set on an Indian Reservation.
This felt pretty standard, but it avoided some of the character pitfalls movies like this usually fall into. I half expected Corey and Jane to fall in love. It's annoying, but frequent. They don't. The movie was smart enough to focus on the crime.
This shed typical once they get closer to the answers. We get a great set up with a lot of tension, that doesn't subside. To describe would spoil a great plot point. Anything could happen at any moment, and that's when this move comes into its own.

I wondered if we would find out what really happened, and we do in a slick bit of editing/sequencing. Unfortunately, none of the characters in the movie will discover what really happened. That's what I thought, but this movie isn't over. It gets a bit twisted.

This seemed like a typical murder mystery with a nice setting, but it gets better as it does along. By the end it became a great example in the genre.