Grief can be insurmountable. The loss of someone close to you can be overwhelming; it can feel as if you will never be the same again, something you can’t move on from. This feeling of total and complete loss of oneself is exactly what Robin Wright’s character, Edee, is experiencing throughout her new film “Land.” Instead of facing her demons head on, she packs up and heads out to the unforgiving Rockies in search of complete isolation.
Robin Wright’s directorial debut highlights the sweeping vistas of the Rockies, showcasing their beauty with a myriad of wide (yet sometimes pointless) shots, attempting to give visual justification to the thought process that brought Edee to this desolation. Wright pulls off some interesting shots with her freshman filmmaking style, but the unique framing is consistently undercut by overzealous editors, who either think they are editing a comedy or just wanted the film to be as short as possible. We never get a chance to try and discern what Edee is thinking. The close-ups on her as she is either experiencing something or musing, “I know I’d be more lonely there than here,” cut away almost immediately, playing a cruel trick on the audience, attempting to find out if this film actually has anything to say.
While Wright and Bichir both give committed performances, in addition to the fanatic editing, the script does not do the pair any favors. The pedestrian dialogue that somehow made it into the final draft of the script seems to almost completely dismantle the characters the actors crafted. Nobody would say these things, unless reading a script written in a junior college screenplay course.
These detractors do a complete disservice to the film, raising some truly commendable ideas, but consistently ringing hollow. “Land” deals with some pretty weighty themes and teases the events that led our character to her current state throughout its running time. Yet, when we finally gain the knowledge of what happened in her past, it mostly comes off as trite melodrama, which is a testament to the extreme misguidedness of the script, since the event is incredibly traumatic.
“Land” has a lot of positives under its belt, especially Wright’s potential as a filmmaker. However, akin to Pinocchio who just wanted to be a real boy, the film is in constant need to be something more than it is. Having something to say and wanting to say something are two very different notions, and in this case the latter was conceived.
*”Land” is available to stream on Prime Video, iTunes, Vudu, Fandango, and more.
