The Homesman 2014

Wesley Morris, Grantland: The development probably works in Glendon Swarthout's novel of the same name, where Swank is nowhere in sight. But not in the theater. You're tempted to give up on the movie because it feels as if the movie has given up on her. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Title and director notwithstanding, Tommy Lee Jones' "The Homesman'' is very much a feminist Western - one painting a vivid picture of how difficult it was for even a strong and determined woman to survive in frontier days. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: A grand, shocking saga of a movie, The Homesman is the kind they don't make much anymore. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Everyone has a favorite Tommy Lee Jones performance. Until now I didn't have my least favorite, but "The Homesman" provides it, and is ruined by it. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Swank and Streep are big stars with famous faces, and yet disappear into their roles; these characters convey both quiet strength and gentle kindness. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Unlike other actor-directors, Jones never seems to indulge excess on the part of his cast. Though the characters are strong, the performances are understated. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: Integrity and personality can go a long way, especially in a movie as unquestionably flawed as The Homesman. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: A film that looks at first glance like a conventional Western but goes to unusual places. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: For a movie headlined by two Oscar-winning Hollywood stars - and directed and co-written by one of them - "The Homesman" is awfully close to outsider art. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: As the protagonists near their final destination, The Homesman offers a critique of civilization that's almost as pessimistic as its critique of frontier life, suggesting that in every corner of America there have always been more losers than winners. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Right or wrong, "The Homesman" belongs to Jones and Swank, and for Western aficionados it's worth seeing. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: If only things had started out on more solid ground and headed toward some sort of resolution. If only. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: While the film is bathed in a beautiful magic-hour glow courtesy of cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, Jones' journey doesn't quite take off. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: If this is a revision to the revisionist westerns ushered in by "Unforgiven," I'll stay back East(wood.) Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: An absorbing, melancholy look at the hard lot of women in the Old West. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: "The Homesman" may sound like a title conferred on a man, and George Briggs may be driving the wagon. But it is Mary Bee's persistence and prayers that carry the women, and the film, flawed as it sometimes is, home. Read more

Jake Coyle, Associated Press: The melancholic balance isn't always quite right and the momentum wanes when it should be gaining. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Parts of The Homesman are a slog to sit through, but the movie ends on a note of absurd comedy that also breaks your heart, suggesting that some people, no matter the circumstances, are incapable of change. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Wanders along the lonesome trail, then heads off into the underbrush. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Certainly, there is a sturdiness to it, and a stubborn want of haste, that might have earned an approving growl from John Ford. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A strange, and beautiful movie, full of odd touches - a knife fight in the middle of a desolate wasteland, a gravestone made from a bed's headboard, a piece of embroidery that stands in for a much-missed keyboard - that haunt after the film's done. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: The Homesman joins a stark, stripped-down beauty to a languid pace and a spare soundtrack to create an ambience that reeks of loneliness and alienation. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: There's a thrilling undercurrent of rebellion in the way this straightforward, seemingly old-fashioned Western takes up the feminist cause. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: "The Homesman" is both a captivating western and a meticulous, devastating feminist critique of the genre. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: At a certain point, The Homesman will take you by surprise. By the end ... it will take your heart. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: This fem-centric Western from actor-director/co-writer Tommy Lee Jones walks the tightrope between comic and tragic. Jones and Hilary Swank ignite combustibly. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A wrenching, relentless and anti-heroic western that stands among the year's most powerful American films. Not everyone will like "The Homesman," but if you see it you won't soon forget it. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Few will regret having seen "The Homesman," and yet it's not exactly an enjoyable experience. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film has more surprising turns than a honeycomb has bees. Absurdity and calamity collide without warning. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Swank, an Oscar winner for "Boys Don't Cry" and "Million Dollar Baby," is outstanding, getting to the essence of Mary Bee's pride and pain. And in the showier role, Jones impressively peels away layers of rambunctiousness to reveal George's humanity. Read more

Jon Frosch, The Atlantic: Jones continues to craft evocative, painterly images, and he takes real risks with tone, shifting from tragic to comic without the usual cues or transitions. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Globe and Mail: It's as stubbornly and cantankerously eccentric as both its wagon drivers, not to mention driven to blaze its own trail through the narrative and mythological landscape of America's defining story form. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The Homesman is a western hard and true, one that probably comes closer to depicting the hardships of frontier life than any number of more conventional oaters. Read more

Inkoo Kang, TheWrap: "Tommy Lee Jones' riveting Western is bleak and very nearly misanthropic, but it's also passionate, earthy, unpredictable, sensitive, and gloriously distinct." Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: It doesn't help that Swank never finds a way into this highly unappealing character, or that Jones (mostly phoning in the pitiable surliness) avoids delving very deeply into the story's proto-feminist undercurrents. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The Homesman aims for a story that's poignant and told sparely, but comes across as mawkish, tedious and self-indulgent. Read more

Pete Vonder Haar, Village Voice: Glendon Swarthout's 1988 novel offered a rare approach to ... Old West stories by shifting the focus to the women and children who often bore its brunt the worst, and Jones has - for the most part - successfully captured this ... Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: I was impressed with how Jones's uncomfortable mixing of tones in the first half of the film gave way to something more elegiac and evocative by the end. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: Some recent interviews with Jones paint him as a bit of a curmudgeon. But he's right to push back against being put into a box. "The Homesman" succeeds mainly because it and he don't neatly fit into one. Read more