Synopsis
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.
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Cast
- Hilary SwankMary Bee Cuddy
- Tommy Lee JonesGeorge Briggs
- Grace GummerArabella Sours
- Miranda OttoTheoline Belknap
- Sonja RichterGro Svendsen
- Tim Blake NelsonThe Freighter
- James SpaderAloysius Duffy
- John LithgowReverend Alfred Dowd
- Evan JonesBob Giffen
- Barry CorbinBuster Shaver
Recommendations
- 80
CineVue
With The Homesman, Jones has produced an original and cantankerously offbeat western which becomes increasingly beguiling as the road stretches on. - 80
The Guardian
Tommy Lee Jones shows some true storytelling grit in this superbly watchable frontier western; he has a muscular and confident command of narrative, driving the plot onward with a real whip-crack, and easily handles the tonal swings between brutal shock, black comedy and sentimentality. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
This beautifully crafted film intrigues as a story never told before and ratchets up dramatic interest through a succession of unexpected turns. - 80
The Telegraph
The mood flits between solemn and rascally, and the pacing is measured: this is storytelling at a mosey rather than a trot. - 80
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. - 75
The Playlist
While it’s an awkward, uneven picture, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a fascinating one. - 67
IndieWire
Jones' alternately skillful and irreverent approach results in a mixed bag of possibilities, with many terrifically entertaining on their own even as the overall picture remains muddled. - 63
Slant Magazine
If there's any ambiguity to be found in the film's prolonged last gasps, which reach for tragedy, but only sow more epistemic confusion, it's of a mawkish and unpalatable variety.
