The Power of The Dog * * * * ½

Jane Campion rarely lets her audience down and in this, her latest production she excels.  She really is an extraordinary film maker.  She's one of the directors who has us wait with great anticipation.

I'm not sure if The Power of The Dog was made for Television or for the cinema. Because it was launched  in the middle of the pandemic they released it on Streaming at the same time.  At the time of me writing this you can see it either way.

Hey Bro, this don't look like
Marlborough Country to me.

It's adapted from a novel written fifty odd years ago.  It's got a bit of a Steinbeck feel about it. Two brothers working a ranch: one of them mean and tough, the other has a heart.  Then a woman comes between them. She's a widow and has a son who lacks masculine character.

Phil is the mean brother (which is most inapproprate for a man with such a charming name - but I digress).  He is well played by Benedict Cumberbatch.  Jesse Plemons plays the gentler brother who woos the widow (Kirsten Dunst).  With the brothers, you get the impression each could have played the others role, such is their skill.

It is supposedly set on a ranch in Montana and I would believe it was if I hadn't been told in every artcile I read on the production of it, that it was acutally filmed in New Zealand.  That spoiled it for me a little because I kept seeing New Zealand.  But I guess it's just a stage.

Getting back to the drama and the direction. Superb is all I can say.  It's a piece of art that skates over the thin ice of  sin, jealousy, homo-eroticism, guilt and fear.  Jane Campion is brilliant and this shines.