November 26, 2014 -- This grim revisionist Western is determined to smash any trace of romance to smithereens, and it does. It takes place in the hostile environment of the historic western frontier with a grim tale of mad housewives being carted back to civilization from the horrors of dry land farming and ranching.

This movie reminded me a bit of the 1979 film “Heartland” in its depiction of the harsh conditions of homesteaders in the Old West, but this new film makes that older film seem like a visit to Disneyland. Now it was tough in the Old West. Early settlers did go mad in Wyoming and other western states from the isolation, incessant spring winds and harsh arid climate. The condition became known as prairie madness. In this film, we see women murdering their own children and mutilating themselves. There is nudity and sex, too, but all the romance, all the sensuality has been removed from these scenes. This is like a clinical look at animal reproduction.

The main character, Mary Bee Cuddy (played by Hilary Swank of “Conviction”) is a hard-working single woman who has built a good life for herself, but she is lonely. She cooks a nice meal for a single neighbor, Bob Giffen (played by Evan Jones of “The Book of Eli”) and sings for him, but when she proposes marriage, he bluntly tells her she is too bossy and plain-looking for his taste. He will go back east to find a wife.

Mary, a deeply religious woman, volunteers to take three women back east, who have all gone crazy with prairie madness, Arabella Sours (Grace Gummer of “Margin Call”) Theoline Belknapp (Miranda Otto of “I, Frankenstein”) and Gro Svendsen (Sonja Richter of “Deliver Us From Evil”). When the members of her church congregation objects that this is a job for a man, Mary argues that she can ride and shoot as well as any man and can cook and take care of the women better than a man. Everyone agrees that she is right about that, and she is right.

Nevertheless, Mary would like to have a man along, and she finds one, a squatter at Bob Giffen's place (after Bob had left to look for a wife in the east). The squatter, George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones of “Lincoln”) is in danger of death by hanging at the hands of vigilantes. Mary agrees to save his life if he will help her transport the women to Iowa, where they will be cared for by relatives and members of a church.

Although George is an uncouth, foul-mouthed thief, he also proves to be a tough and capable companion who materially helps Mary transport the women to Iowa in a kind of prison wagon. This is no easy task. The mad women howl, fight with each other and repeatedly try to escape. It is all Mary and George can do to keep them alive and under some kind of control. They meet up with Indians and tough, cruel characters. A lot of interesting things happen along the way. It is an adventure.

Although I would have liked this film more if it didn't have the obligatory suicide, it is a pretty good movie with excellent performances, strong writing and nice scenery in New Mexico and other places. The cinematographer, Rodrigo Prieto (“Brokeback Mountain”) takes full advantage of that scenery. This is the way Westerns are supposed to look. This film rates a B.

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