Review: Robin Wright tries to get lost in 'Land,' a gorgeous drama about solitude, nature and grief

For “Land,” her first feature as a director, Robin Wright displays all the qualities she has as an actor: Elegance, natural beauty and a core of strength beneath a delicate surface.

Wright plays Edee, a woman who has suffered something — what that something is remains unexpressed for much of the film — and is looking to get away from other people. She buys a cabin deep in the Wyoming Rockies (the shoot was actually in Alberta), and holes up with a lot of canned food and some manuals on how to survive in the woods.

Working off a spare script, by Jesse Chatham and Erin Dignam, Wright shows Edee’s gradual evolution as she figures out how to live alone. After one event that leaves Edee starving and freezing, she gets an assist from a hunter, Miguel (Demián Bichir), who shows her skills that can’t be learned from a book. A friendship develops, though both recognize the other is in pain and are careful not to pry into each other’s pasts.

Wright and cinematographer Bobby Bukowski capture the austere, unforgiving beauty in which Edee has surrounded herself. And, with an assist from editors Anne McCabe and Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, Wright unfolds the depths of Edee’s grief and Miguel’s regrets in subtle strokes, creating a shattering effect when the whole picture becomes clear. Wright is also a fair arbiter of her own performance, which is as powerful as it is understated.

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‘Land’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, February 12, in theaters where open. Rated PG-13 for thematic content, brief strong language, and partial nudity. Running time: 89 minutes.

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This review originally ran on this site on January 31, 2021, when the movie premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.