‘Bronco Henry told me that a man was made by patience in the odds against him...’
It’s rare that you come across a cinematic character who is at once incredibly compelling and also a piece of shit. You’ve got Travis Bickle, I suppose. Daniel Plainview. Henry Hill. OK, so it isn’t rare. But when it happens and it happens successfully, you are often presented with a formidable film to go with that antihero. Well… Benedict Cumberbatch’s character here is a total piece of shit. A piece of shit for the ages. Unfortunately, the film that is going on around him does not do him justice…
Phil Burbank (Cumberbatch) is a man who enjoys nature. He likes swimming naked in the river. He likes riding horses. He likes tying knots. All that macho stuff. But he also has a secretive tender side. He likes swimming naked in the river. He likes riding horses. All that effeminate stuff. He’s a mixed up guy. Phil has a complicated relationship with his brother George (Jesse Plemons), made all the more complex when George marries Rose (Kirsten Dunst). The arrival of Rose and her peculiar son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) sets into motion a series of events that will have huge ramifications for everyone.
So, what we have here is one of the decades great performances trapped in a fairly ponderous film. Yes, I realise that celebrated director Jane Campion is making some kind of esoteric comment about the death of the American dream and a more overt observation about masculinity and class, and that’s all fine, but it’s also fairly dull for long stretches – particularly the moments in which Cumberbatch isn’t scowling his way to a Best Actor gong. His performance here is a thing of utter majestic brilliance. I fully believed that if I encountered this man in some dark booze hole somewhere that he would drink me under the table and then beat me at poker. A stunning, captivating performance from a great actor.
The Power of the Dog has some genuinely electric scenes and Cumberbatch is a formidable presence, but that’s not enough to elevate the film as a whole into something more than just merely watchable. It could have been so much more…