The wide vista cinematography in _Woman Walks Ahead_ would have been amazing to see on the big screen. Unfortunately it never showed up at theaters where I live (the state where the film was shot!). But Jessica Chastain's performance is still riveting from the first frame on my monitor. As soon as her
Catherine appears on screen, she doesn't so much walk as bursts ahead, bouncing with enthusiasm. A portraitist before her marriage, she wants to travel from New York City to the wild west and paint Sitting Bull. She has grieved her husband's death for a year. Now she is ready to shed mourning black for chic blue and green. She flings the husband's portrait into the river -- which anticipates the true feelings about controlling male relatives she will reveal much later in the film -- and with the trademark pluck of so many American movie heroines, hops on the train.

Soon she is spit at, almost arrested, beaten, and stopped in her tracks.
Having no allies, she is distrusted by native Indians and hated by soldiers
and Caucasian settlers (most of whom have vivid tales of Indian atrocity to hold grudge with). Here is where Chastain far surpasses the actresses in her generation (Julia Roberts, Reese witherspoon ...) playing "plucky American girls" -- as much an archetype and cliche as the formless pretty wives-and- girlfriends in Hollywood films. Chastain manages to animate Catherine's emotional journey, from exuberance to fear, and a dawning comprehension of everyone's agenda, with astonishing vividness. She imbues
the widow with an untamed wildness; the unpredictability keeps us in suspense. The modulation in her voice as the story unfolds, the different ways she walks and presents herself -- they add up to a revelatory physical performance.
This must have been an incredibly strenuous shoot for the actress, who has to slide in the snow, stumble along while spitting blood, ride horses, walk endlessly under the sun with sweat stains ruining the sides of her smart corseted outfits. Slowly her sincerity gains the trust of Sitting Bull, the
native Americans, and an unlikely ally in a guilt-ridden colonel who has massacred women and children (Sam Rockwell). She overcomes her fears and keeps going, helps rally votes to preserve the Lakota land, even as the 7th Cavalry
closes in for the kill.

The costume department deserves special mention, not just for the period Indian feathers and U.S. Army uniforms, but also for Catherine's distinctive wardrobe. (Rarely in her career has Chastain's trademark flaming locks been as flattered by her matching green dress and earrings.) Despite her free-spirit, she will only take off her corset once, in a chastely romantic rain-drenched scene with Sitting Bull (played by a dignified Michael Greyeyes). The cinematography is magnificent especially in the beginning, catching the portraitist half in light and half darkness, as if foretelling her ambiguous destiny. The final sequence -- with Sitting Bull being assassinated, Catherine giving vain chase, and the showhorse Rico dancing his side-footed dance (as trained in a circus) is stunning, tragic, absurd, and fitting ending to this emotionally complex effort.

The screenplay, by Steven Knight who has worked extensively with Stephen Frears,
does not sugarcoat the war crimes atrocities on both sides; it is much better than the newspaper reviews have suggested -- even if it takes substantial liberty with history. (For example, Catherine Weldon appeared to have been a divorcee, not a widow.) Britain's Susanna White directed _Woman Walks Ahead_; her credits include all 5 episodes of "Parade's End" starring Rebecca Hall. Maybe she can come up a film with the two world-class actresses playing against each other?


(for A.)

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Britain's Susanna White directed _Woman Walks Ahead_;

her credits include all 5 episodes of "Parade's End" starring Rebecca Hall. Maybe she can come up a film with the two world-class actresses playing against
each other?

I just saw this on DVD again with Susanna White's commentary. She is a bit laconic, staying silent for long stretches in the last half, but does marvel
at the heat lightning that fortuitously accompanies the fateful scene where Sitting Bull tell Catherine that he has a vision about his death. The
entire film is shot in a 25 mile radius around Santa Fe, including the
New York scenes! I assume the bridge in New York must be one of the foot bridges over the commuter train to the state capital, with the buildings
CGI-ed in. White relates that Jessica Chastain insists in doing a lot of physical stuff, like dragging her luggage in the sand with weights in them. This only confirms what I suspected. In casual conversations, I am stunned
at how many people in my circle have never heard of Jessica. In my view,
she is a much an American legend as Sitting Bull.

Speaking of Rebecca Hall -- I finally saw her work in _The Dinner_. What
a horrible film, most of it wasted on Steve Coogan's scenery chewing. Hall does have a big scene towards the very end which justifies my sitting
through this. She plays off Richard Gere really well. Coogan and Laura Linney, by comparison, are such light-weights.

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