Jane Campion is back with her first film in 12 years, and the trailer promises a stunning return.
The Power of the Dog is an upcoming Netflix film that follows the scorching tale of two brothers and the widow and her son who upend their sleepy but repressed life on a Montana ranch.
The film is an adaption of Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel, which many consider a forgotten classic of the era. Campion will bring her own script to life, hoping to nab her second Best Original Screenplay Academy Award, while the film features an all-star cast including Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Thomasin McKenzie, Frances Conroy, and Keith Carradine.
“Campion reaffirms her status as one of the world’s greatest — and most gratifyingly eccentric — filmmakers with this mesmerizing, psychologically rich variation on the American western. Adapted from a 1967 cult novel by Thomas Savage that was notoriously ahead of its time in depicting repressed sexuality, ‘The Power of the Dog’ excavates the emotional torment experienced at a Montana cattle ranch in the 1920s. Here, melancholy young widow Rose (Kirsten Dunst) has come to live with her sensitive new husband, George (Jesse Plemons), though their lives are increasingly complicated by the erratic, potentially violent behavior of his sullen and bullying brother, Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch), whose mistrust of both Rose and her misfit son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) leads to tragic consequences. Mirroring the unpredictable story turns, Campion crafts a film of unexpected cadences and rhythms, and her daring is matched every step of the way by her extraordinary, fully immersed cast and a mercurial, destabilizing score by Jonny Greenwood.”
Netflix will premiere The Power of the Dog in select theaters following its festival run on November 17th, with a release on the streamer to follow.
