It's 1845 Oregon. Three families Tetherows (Michelle Williams, Will Patton),Gatelys (Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano),and Whites (Shirley Henderson, Neal Huff, Tommy Nelson) are led by the mountain man Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) who claims to know a short cut across a high plain desert. They struggle as their water supplies dwindle. When the group captures an Indian, the group is torn about what to do with him.

This is a slow pace movie with long uncut scenes. The style is minimalist. Kelly Reichardt is usually an indie director. That's what this is. It's nine actors and a crew out in the wilderness making a western indie. This is like a waking dream where we are waiting for something dire to happen. The acting is mostly reserved with a steady quiet tone. However I must object to the ending, and rate the movie lower because of it. It is not a proper ending.

A party of settlers take the Oregon Trail in 1845. Their guide is a curtly-speaking mountain man played by Bruce Greenwood.

Kelly Reichardt's revisionist western -- how many times has the legend of the West been revised? -- has a feminist slant, with actressses like Michelle Williams and Zoe Kazan chafing under the men making decisions while they walk behind the wagons. There's Rod Rondeaux playing an Indian who's just.... there, commenting on the events in his Indian manner. Is he a shaman? Ms. Reichardt's movies takes many of the tropes that the genre has developed in more than a century and a half, and made of this more than a clash of cultures, but of spiritual systems: the White man, the Indian, the women, even the land. How many of them can survive?

Writer Jonathan Raymond is clearly familiar with the genre, particularly its A productions; the western film fan will recognize bit lifted from films as diverse as HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER and WESTWARD THE WOMEN, repurposed.

That's how a mythos survives. The symbols remain the same, but the meanings change to suit the audience and the myth-maker.

The movie starts out real slow. We watch the mundane tasks of the pioneers as they load water, wash dishes, grind meal...There is no introduction of characters. In fact they remain fairly plain. We hear and watch much of the important conversation from a distance catching bits and pieces. 3 devout families have hired Steven Meek, a slightly crusty man, to guide them to Oregon. He takes them into a high plains desert where they wander for weeks.

The men suspect Mr. Meek is deliberately attempting to get them lost as Oregon is an area in flux and may go to the English, depending on how many Americans settle there...or not. There is an Indian that pops up from time to time. Steven scares everyone with his Indian stories. Eventually they encounter the Indian and you think the story will pick up, but surprise! It doesn't.

The movie ends abruptly. From Meek's words, the film appears to be some sort of metaphor for life and fate as to what path to follow and who to trust, although for the life of me I can't really figure out what it is. The movie won all kinds of awards and I haven't figured that one out either. It was extremely boring. The dialogue was boring. The drama was boring. The people were boring. After a while, the scenery got boring. The squeak of the wagon wheel drove me crazy. Why anyone would waste their time watching this film is beyond me. It isn't accurate history. It is not art and it is not entertaining.