Director Ron Howard adds to his eclectic filmography with this mystical Western, in which a 19th-century single mother (Cate Blanchett) reluctantly teams up with a man from her past (Tommy Lee Jones) to retrieve her kidnapped daughter.
Blanchett goes beyond the cliche of the hardy pioneer woman to create a fierce, survivalist heroine. Jones may have the muscle, but it’s Blanchett you want on your side.