Western
Drama
When three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad by harsh pioneer life, the task of saving them falls to the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy. Transporting the women by covered wagon to Iowa, she soon realizes just how daunting the journey will be, and employs a low-life drifter, George Briggs, to join her. The unlikely pair and the three women head east, where a waiting minister and his wife have offered to take the women in. But the group first must traverse the harsh Nebraska Territories marked by stark beauty, psychological peril and constant threat.
Directors
Hilary Swank
Mary Bee Cuddy
Tommy Lee Jones
George Briggs
Grace Gummer
Arabella Sours
Miranda Otto
Theoline Belknap
Sonja Richter
Gro Svendsen
Tim Blake Nelson
The Freighter
James Spader
Aloysius Duffy
John Lithgow
Reverend Alfred Dowd
Evan Jones
Bob Giffen
Barry Corbin
Buster Shaver
Hailee Steinfeld
Tabitha Hutchinson
Meryl Streep
Altha Carter
William Fichtner
Vester Belknap
David Dencik
Thor Svendsen
Jesse Plemons
Garn Sours
Jo Harvey Allen
Mrs. Polhemus
Caroline Lagerfelt
Netti Svendsen
Karen Jones
Mrs. Linens
Directors
More like this
User reviews3
Review
Featured review
Two strong performances from Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank do much to lift this rather simple, plodding, story but sadly in the end, it seemed to me to be a very thinly spread amalgam of stories that lacked any real substance and was, frankly, quite depressing. Swank is "Mary Bee Cuddy" who is looking after three women who have, for various reasons, found the pioneering life of the wild west beyond them and pretty much lost the plot, psychologically speaking. Being a good Christian, she decides to relocate these women into the care of a distant church. Meantime, TLJ is the drifter "George Briggs" whom she happens upon strung up from a tree. She releases him on condition that he helps her escort her charges, and off we go on a perilous trek. The cinematography is gorgeous - it's great at conveying not just the scale of the country they are crossing, but also of the harshness of the wintry conditions they must endure as they travel. Their lengthy journey, though, really robs the film of any pace, and the inevitable bonding of the two after some initial suspicion is just too predictable - and uncomfortable to watch. It's not without it's tragedy, but somehow even that didn't resonate much and by the time it reached it's conclusion I felt that I'd been watching two hours with something missing... It is beautifully crafted film with a good accompaniment from Marco Beltrami, but I'm not sure I'll ever watch it again.
Geronimo196724 Aug, 2023
Top picks
TV shows and movies just for you
Box office
Budget
$16,000,000Gross worldwide
$3,442,853





































































