In my review of Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), I praised star Lily Gladstone’s performance as Mollie Kyle, an Osage woman caught in a web of murder and greed in the Oklahoma oil fields of the 1920s.  Disappointingly, when it came Oscar time the following year, the award for Best Actress went to Emma Stone for Poor Things (2023).  As I did not see that one, I have no real frame of reference.  What I do know from the little bit of research I did on the matter is that Killers of the Flower Moon lacked the smut of its cinematic rival.  That fact will always get the attention of this Catholic reviewer.  It also got me curious to see other pictures with Gladstone.  Hence, I was pleased my scrolling through Netflix brought me The Unknown Country (2022), and I look forward to telling you about it.

Actually, there is not a lot to say about The Unknown Country, and lots at the same time.  It follows Tana (Lily Gladstone), a Sioux woman living in Minneapolis and taking care of her grandmother (not pictured).  Actually, that should be past tense as her grandmother recently passed.  What proceeds is her road-trip across the United States as a way of healing from the loss.  It is said that the land will heal, but Christianity is not absent from the film.  At any rate, what prompts the first leg of the trip is an invitation to her cousin’s wedding back in Sioux country in South Dakota, a place she has not been to since she was a child.  Along the way, her stops are sprinkled with stories from different people she meets, even if briefly.  It is also apparent that, in addition to her grief, she is leery of strangers.  This part of the plot remains unresolved, which is why I initially talked about the potential thinness of what I have to say.  What it does, on the other hand, is make the friendly faces stand out more, and they are the ones that receive the most focus.  A lot of time is spent in Lakota lands, reconnecting with her cousin and family.  Tana attends the wedding, plays with the little ones, goes out on the town with the newlyweds, and gets to see people that she has not talked to in decades.  One of these is her Great-uncle Augustus (Richard Ray Whitman), who tells Tana all about what her grandmother meant to him.  He also gives her a suitcase and directs her attention to a photograph of her grandmother when she was a young girl.  That, along with his rumors of her visiting Texas, gives the next stage of her trek a direction.  With his suggestion to go, she gets back on the road and heads south.  Despite the good feelings gained from being with kin, she is still wary of strangers.  We see this during one scene where she stops in a random town along the way.  She is an observer of one of the more remarkable events I have seen on film where people are dragged on skis behind horses, and have to jump over snowbanks.  Apparently, this is not interesting enough for a few men, who try to chat up Tana.  She quickly gets away from them and continues.  She soon encounters a friendly man in a convenience store that boosts her confidence a little in the opposite sex.  I say this because her next big stop is Dallas, Texas.  Sitting down at an outdoor bar where a band is about to play, a group of people ask her to join them.  I expected her to say no, but she accepts their company and spends the day on the town.  One of their number, Isaac (Raymond Lee), develops the most interest in her.  At the end of the night, it is just them and one other guy, who is sleeping off his drunkenness in the back of her car.  While Tana has not been forthcoming with a ton of details, she does show Isaac the picture of her grandmother that she obtained from Augustus.  In addition to reminding him of his own grandma, he points out that it looks to have been taken in Big Bend National Park.  Thus, it is to there that she travels.  Upon arrival, she dons the same dress her grandmother wore in the picture, and makes her way to the spot where the photograph was taken.  This is the end of her journey, with Tana looking out over the mountainous vista below her.

I do not know about you, but this does not sound like an ending for The Unknown Country, or any movie for that matter.  It is one of those flicks that you have to watch in order to understand, though I cannot say that I completely get it still.  I kept wondering what the point was several minutes after it began, though it slowly became apparent that her grandmother died.  Further, there is some unresolved trauma with men, though we are not given any specifics.  Instead, the movie is more about the journey than the plot, and it is a well filmed and acted one.  Going on a journey of healing, too, is not an unfamiliar process for us Catholics.  Indeed, this is essentially the point of a pilgrimage.  By walking in the footsteps of Jesus and His Saints, we hope to bring our troubles to God by mimicking in location, if nothing else, what others did in drawing closer to the Divine.  As I mentioned in the introduction, Christianity is also a small part of this story.  While there is a mix of Native American customs in the ceremony, the wedding is officiated by a reverend of some kind.  I had a little difficulty being able to tell whether it is a Catholic priest.  Given the independent nature of this production, finding details on the film is somewhat difficult.  It is also confusing because the preacher is wearing a white robe, but with a red stole.  Priests don white robes and stoles to preside at matrimony Masses.  At the same time, the threads look Catholic adjacent, and with the non-Catholic aspects of the ceremony, he could have been a priest who is simply officiating.  Forgive me, though, as I am getting into the Catholic weeds.  Overall, Tana receives what she needs from her trip, though it does not have a broader Christian message.  It is the only thing missing from the movie.

Actually, there is a lot missing from The Unknown Country, but I am not fussed about it.  As I have already indicated, it is a pretty movie to look at, and I enjoyed the score.  It also does not devolve into seedier aspects, which I dreaded most of the time.  Sometimes, life really is just about the journey.