Especially if she’s young, pretty, and content to be alone. The world rushes in no matter how she resists its invasion. Strangers demand her attention, her smile, and her time. The sexual connotations are undeniably complex and intensify when race enters the picture, as in The Kingdom of God, a story about a woman who wants to be left at peace.
It’s clear from the start that Sandra (Thandiwe Newton) loves to keep the world at bay. That’s evident in the location of her home in rural Montana. A neat structure with large windows to take in her stunning views, but not much privacy at night, the house is surrounded by trees and perched on a majestic mountain range. It’s idyllic, far enough from her neighbors and within sight of one of her co-workers, but close enough to the town and the small college where she teaches.
Sandra’s mother, who lived with her, recently passed away, but it’s a good life. Now Sandra lives with her dog. She is still very much in mourning — the melancholy seems to have settled on her like a heavy blanket, giving her the unspeakable sadness that Newton conveys with expressive delicacy — but she She runs with her dog, chops firewood, goes to work, and suffers meetings without rolling her eyes (not much). She has few friends of hers, in fact she is her colleague, but she does relate to others, and as soon as she understands, she is in her own words with them. I will be involved.
Her sovereignty is tested when a red pickup truck suddenly pulls up on her property and is visible through her front window. She leaves a polite note in the truck, but the pickup continues to materialize and the bright and ugly harbinger of trouble soon intensifies. Ski and Jefferson White) love to hunt in the area and don’t care whose land they trample. Things escalate quickly. Soon, Sandra and her brother get into a fight on her property. “I’ve heard of you,” Samuel told her, heading for her as Nathan held him back.
This movie is James Lee Burke’swinter lighta brief and moody short story, is an atmospheric, intriguingly ambiguous meditation on masculinity and ethics that turns into a war of self-extinguishing wills. but made major changes, especially to the main character, who was a white male in the original. I gave Sandra a troublesome backstory, but it only puts pressure on her.
Higgins has a poetic sense of the landscape, and he and cinematographer Andrew Wheeler make effective use of the region’s majestic and sometimes eerie beauty. It’s winter when the story begins and snow covers the area, creating a soothing stillness that seems ominous. It’s not because they seem almost incapable of defeating anyone. This country is not just for gods.
The film works best when it doesn’t over-describe, instead letting the land and characters, the vast spaces and performances, especially Newton’s meticulously controlled turns, speak for themselves. In the story, Burke writes about one of the intruders: Newton and some of the other actors (especially Jerksey and Jeremy Bob as ineffective lawyers) do a fine job of capturing the violent subtleties of the sentence. You don’t have to hear threats to know violence is coming soon.
God’s country
Rated R for violence and language. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. at the theater.