SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

jamalking15 Great cinematography and music. Acting was reasonable, and the story had great potential. With the list of A-list stars I was hoping for a bit more to the story. Would have been a 6 or so, but the outlandish and out of place scene with James Spader, towards the end kind of killed it for me. Could have been a great theme of every human having value despite issues, but story fell short and not even A-listers could save it. Towards the end even the actors seemed to lose conviction in their story telling. Finally at the end, the laser-cut perfectly straight modern font on a wooden tombstone kinda demonstrates the lackluster effort the producers put into making the story believable.

tplayer49 A first for me. Never thought a movie could go from a depressing note... to the next depressing note .... and the next , and the next... and... even end on a depressing note.Go go now. Got to do something to cheer me up. Bye

softpineswhisperinthebreeze I don't doubt that there is an important message of history in this film. But, I couldn't get past the disturbing imagery to see it. Within the first fifteen minutes or so, a woman is raped by a man who commands her to give him a son as he violates her, then another woman throws a live crying infant into the toilet to die.I have a capacity for empathy, so that all really bothered me to see. I wonder if they aren't playing to a number audience, resorting to such forceful means to get a point across. Speaking personally, they wouldn't have needed such force to move me. As is, I had to stop watching. It made me wonder what the value might be of a film's message when it's presented in such a disturbing way that people don't want to see it. I mean, if I were in a theater, I would definitely have walked out. There's no question about that. Whatever message this has to impart is not worth disturbing myself so much to reach.Perhaps this was intended for another audience? That's all I can think. To those like myself who are moved by things without the need for such graphic imagery, this would be one to stay away from. From what I've read, it doesn't get better later on in the film.

zkonedog While westerns are not my all-time favorite genre, when one is well down I can enjoy it thoroughly. With what seemed like an interesting story, along with the casting of Tommy Lee Jones & Hilary Swank, I figured this would be a classic. Sadly, it seems as if the producers were more concerned about telling the bleakest story possible than they were about focusing on plot points or any certain themes.For a basic plot summary, "The Homesman" sees Mary Bee Cuddy (Swank) recruited by the local parish to transport three "crazy" (mentally ill) women across the plains to where they can receive help. Though seemingly an impossible task, Cuddy stumbles upon George Briggs (Jones), a man about to be hanged. Before she rescues him, she makes him promise to help her on her journey.Let me start with what I liked about the film: Jones's performance is truly amazing, and (IMHO) he pretty much carried the film. Even in the spots that didn't emotionally draw me in, Jones's authenticity saved the day on a number of occasions. Swank also played a solid role, but I wish her character would have been given more story/attention (in other words, I think her acting was very much limited by the script). Also, I liked how this movie represented the starkness of the Old West. This isn't a rah-rah cowboys vs. Indians flick in any sense of the imagination. It tries to be as real as possible.That "realism", however, ends up being the downfall of the picture. There are so many interesting tangents that could have been explored throughout the film, but instead they are discarded in favor of the bleak landscape and sometimes shocking crudity of the times. It's almost like the film-makers purposely put all their efforts into creating a shockingly gritty western but forgot along the way that without a flesh-out story it isn't going to succeed.Here are a few examples where I felt the film fell short of its potential mark (MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD...DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS FILM!)...-Why exactly were the women so crazy? The explanation is supposed to be "because pioneer life is so tough", but I didn't buy into that. I needed a little more backstory on them. -Where were they being taken for help? Maybe I missed something, but what was the point of this big adventure anyway? Were the women going to be treated by a doctor? Very anti-climactic in that sense. -When Cuddy meets her end (I won't say how), there is (or at least was to me) an implication that she was also crazy. I wished those themes could have been expanded on as well.To be honest, the only thing I kept this from being a single-star effort for me was Tommy Lee Jones. Even when the ending left me a bit confused and disappointed, his standout emotional performance gave me at least something to care about. Other than that, though, I was severely disappointed at why the movie had to insist on being so bleak in storytelling. All the material was there...it just wasn't allowed to come out.