Land
FOCUS FEATURESRobin Wright’s directorial debut follows the single premise of a mother grieving both her husband and son, leading to her decision to live in a cabin, on the mountains for solitude. The premise itself isn’t much to boast about, however, as many times the film feels like just montages of scenery to disguise its dull narrative. Robin Wright traps herself in a bubble of mediocrity throughout, making the viewing experience feel pointless in the end.
The opening scene to Land describes the entire film perfectly; not meant in a good way. A therapy session with the protagonist, Edee, discusses her distress over a recent tragedy that isn’t revealed at first. Nothing is told and emotions are crammed into the viewers’ throats. Fast forward an hour in and it’s finally explained what happened. This is a huge flaw, as Robin Wright doesn’t have regard for characters or portrayal of emotions, which makes the film feel alien. The first 30 minutes that follow Edee’s struggle to adapt to the harsh environment of the snowy mountains are a good instance of this. On paper this can be seen as an alright introduction, but its execution of trying to make the viewer care comes off forceful and ultimately fails, due to how little is even told about Edee. Paired up with Robin Wright’s mixed performance and you already have a cluttered result.
Unexpectedly, something that Land does succeed in is its presentation. The score for Land is fantastic; it is the saving grace for a majority of the dull and plain scenes throughout. And Robin Wright deserves all the credit for topping it off with its beautiful white, blue, and green color palette which gives the film a melancholic aura from start to finish. Both of these aspects work hand in hand to highlight the wonderful scenery of the mountains and make everything look inviting to the eye.
Beneath the surface of these well-chosen technicalities, though, Wright fully hangs on to these aspects so much that nothing else is paid attention to. The plot is so predictable and arrogant that Robin quickly has to alternate through montages – too many to count – to disguise that there’s nothing here worth praise. The core of the plot derives from the relationship between Edee and the hunter, Miguel, as it is vital for Edee’s “character development”, who had been residing in solitude. Unfortunately, their chemistry isn’t special either. There’s a scene where Edee and Miguel conversate next to the cabin and, out of nowhere, the misunderstood guy trope comes into place, with Miguel accidentally revealing he did research on her behind her back and has Edee mad.
The worse about this choice isn’t that it does not contribute to the progression whatsoever. It’s the fact that in the next scene, almost exactly a minute later, they apologise to one another; this entire scene could’ve been cut out and only good would have come from it. To compensate for making these characters out of cardboard traits, Robin yet again forces another montage on the audience and it’s plain to see from the start how lazy it all is. The final scene of the film is a twist that comes out of thin air where Edee tracks Miguel, after not hearing from him for days, to find out that he’s dying from a disease. So what does Wright do to hide that this scene is terribly done and its ongoing pretentiousness? Yup, cue the music and start the montage for the billionth time.
Even for a debut, Land is lazy and repetitive. Wright does nothing unique to make it stand out at all. Its set location, the score and colour palette of Land compliment each other wonderfully. This is not enough as Wright repeatedly relies on these aspects to make the debut seem deep, when in reality it’s just a shallow mess. Land is one of those films people turn on for background noise, definitely not for its narrative; at least it’s a contender for one of the most forgettable ones of the year.