Land REVIEW

The word “Land” is a double entendre here. Clearly, it refers to the setting of the film. The main character moves into an abandoned cabin in the Montana mountain wilderness after a family tragedy and the stunningly beautiful scenery plays an important role in here healing. But the word “land” is also a verb that means “to cause to rest in a particular place” “to bring to a specified condition” “to complete successfully” or “to catch and bring in.” All of these other definitions describe the movement of plot in this film.  Throughout the movie, we are left to wonder if this woman will successfully assimilate her loss and return to the world as a functioning adult. We wonder if her fellow humans can ever reclaim her. We are not told until the end of the movie just what losses drove her to forsake the world are and this serves the film’s interests (and the viewers) in that we are able to fill in the gap with the losses in our own lives that might make use do what she is doing.

What seems apparent from the opening scenes is that she has committed herself to not ending her own life. But in some weaselly way that human nature has of getting around commitments, she has not agreed to avoid putting herself in a situation where nature could take her life. She is tempting the harsh realities of a Montana winter to carry out her suicidal ideation for her. And into the door of the cabin one freezing cold winter night a stranger arrives – some one who will twice save her. Her life first and then her desire to live second. To say more would to spoil the plot excessively.

 Question for Comment: What losses have you overcome and not overcome? What makes the difference between those two categories?