

The Homesman (2014)
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Listed by
Mary Okeefe
Updated
November 16, 2024
Movie Overview | The Homesman (2014)
Mary Bee Cuddy, a frontier farmer saves the life of claim jumper, George Briggs and persuades him to help her escort three women who have suffered breakdowns to a safe haven in Iowa.
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User reviews
Complicated Movie Theme Performed To Perfection
(Updated: January 04, 2025)
Overall rating
4.2
Entertainment Factor
4.0
Story
4.0
Actors Performance
5.0
Cinematography
4.0
Sound Track
4.0
The movie, The Homesman, takes place in the mid-west in the 1850s when a 30ish, unmarried teacher, Mary Bee Cuddy, played by Hilary Swank, comes from New York to the Mid-west looking for opportunities. Cuddy owns property and is financially secure and outwardly seems to be a strong and independent woman. She suffers, however, from depression and feels isolated. The weather that winter had been very harsh and three women show signs of what was called "prairie madness", (mental illness) and Arabella Sours, played by Grace Gummer, had lost three children to diphtheria, Gro Svendsen, played by Gro Richter, a Danish immigrant who was in an abusive marriage and has a breakdown after the death of her mother, and Theoline Belknap, played by Miranda Otto, who kills her own child after having a poor harvest. The plan was to bring the women to a Methodist Church in Iowa. that cared for the mentally ill, and one of the husbands was supposed to do so, but he declined. This leaves Cuddy to escort the women. There are a series of incidents, where Cuddy rescues a man, George Briggs, played by Tommy Lee Jones, bribes him to join them , the group has encounters with hostile Pawnees, and Arabella is kidnapped and then kills her kidnapper, that moves the story forward and follows the themes of the harsh life in the mid-west during that time and, especially, the life of women. Cuddy does have depression issues and after proposing to Briggs, and he declines her proposal, Cuddy kills herself.
The cast is perfect, and also includes Meryl Streep and John Lithgow, but the movie is carried by Hilary Swank who gives an excellent performance as she shows how difficult and harsh life was, for settlers of the mid-west, especially for women, in the mid 1880's.