KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Palaest recommended

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

lauranielsen-15072 This movie had a great premise and could have been great. It started out ok, but just got worse and worse. A lot of things in the story line didn'make sense (example: she was incredibly smitten with her husband, which the viewer doesn't understand because he's portrayed as a jerk). The scene with the piano just drove me crazy! It was SOO obvious the director was trying to be artsy. It reminded me of a Counting Crows video (puke!). Another miss: the horribly cliche Native American boy (including his Kmart bought costume). At times the main actress was good, other times she was horrible. All the other actors were even worse. The final editing was not well done. Cut-to's that were disjointed and didn't line up, or shots that needed another 20 seconds to establish the context or emotion. If this was made by some college kids, then I'd say bravo. In that aspect this movie would be impressive. But I suspect it had a little more experience and budget behind it. It almost seemed as if it was rushed out of production. If more time had been spent on the details and editing, it would have been a MUCH better movie. I will give credit to the writer though, as the story was very solid. Some people can see past all these errors, but people that expect a movie to leave an impression on them will find it too irritating.

fredjmuggs Young housewife in the mid-1800's heads west with her husband who decides to leave the safety of their wagon train to strike out cross country alone. Wow is THAT dumb. Even dumber, he gets himself killed. He wasn't the only dummy - the Indians who killed him don't bother to look for any valuables in the wagon (where the wife is hiding under a blanket) - This story so out of touch with the times. Then the young wife is completely lost doing the simplest things that anyone in the nineteenth century would have had no trouble with - like using a flint and steel to start a cooking fire. I couldn't watch any more of this nonsense and deleted it from my Kindle.

droolmouth Now, I can understand that this movie was not supposed to be a documentary, but it is so laughably inaccurate as a history piece that it keeps taking a viewer outside of what could be a good story. I'm just at the part where the sun, shining from overhead, somehow starts a Bible on fire by shining sideways through the lenses of the pioneer woman's plastic lens bifocals. That's a good thing, because this woefully unprepared pioneer woman does not have any survival skills at all, despite being on the Mormon Trail for 230 days now, according to her tally. Even worse, she has been recently left a widow, as marauding unseen Indians apparently beat her husband to death with pillows (he has no marks or blood on his body) before they were apparently called off to another pillow attack, forgetting to check the wagon for supplies, or a woman to kidnap. So she is left to survive on the trail alone, which would be horrifying, if not for the complete implausibility of her even surviving this long. So you figure she will be all right, since even the raccoons in this movie make enough noise in the woods to be easily located, and the magic eyeglasses will probably zap them, gut them and cook them for her. My point is, if you have a story to tell, do the homework necessary to keep the viewer in the story, not laughing at how ridiculous that last scene was. Yes, research is work, but good writing is work. I'm not asking for the moon here, just . . . She wears dance slippers, for Heaven's sake! Why would she be wearing dance slippers?

susanquesan I've read all the reviews pointing to the obvious problems with zippers, sweating, costumes, etc.... and I noticed that too but I think it is short-sighted not to point out the things that worked in this movie. This was the director's first film on a very, very small budget and I think he accomplished some very effective scenes. The attack scene was pure genius because it creates terror with no extra expense using a bunch of actors, etc.. The viewer experiences it completely from the woman's point of view. The lead actress is excellent and well directed! I also thought the camera movement around the woman in the woods was excellent and created genuine suspense. Making films is extremely difficult and to just pick away at all the details of sweating, zippers and undergarments, and the fact she never wears a coat is all legit but stops short of the redeeming qualities of this film. In the Coen brothers' re-make of "True Grit" the girl is completely dry after riding her horse across a river! And that's the very well-financed, acclaimed Coen brothers! This film maker has genuine potential and should be encouraged to make more films.