Wind River (2017)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Wind River (2017) – T. Sheridan

Above average thriller that has more to say than usual – about sexual violence against women, in particular on Native American reservations (where tribal police may be understaffed and have no ability to prosecute non-Native offenders).  It also spends a lot of its runtime with characters who are grieving, allowing viewers to absorb their feelings.  Jeremy Renner plays a hunter who is called into the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming during the winter to track a mountain lion who has been killing sheep.  He is no stranger to the reservation (portrayed as a dead-end place), as his ex-wife grew up there; they are divorced, after the recent death of their teen daughter. So, when Renner finds the frozen body of another Native girl, this brings traumatic memories back for him.  Elizabeth Olsen is the FBI agent, perhaps out-of-her-depth, brought in to solve the crime.  Graham Greene is the cynical tribal sheriff.  The content is depressing and the many chilly shots of people in snow simply add to the forsaken feel.  As seen in flashback, the crime itself is brutal and terrifying, revealing not only hostile prejudice toward Native Americans but a depiction of the worst of men.  Renner’s final actions feel as though they can’t possibly erase his trauma and might add to it.  Yet, at the end of the day, we do get glimpses of human warmth, between Renner and the dad of the victim, between Renner and Olsen.  Hope isn’t all lost when people care about each other -- but the failure of the American government to adequately protect its indigenous peoples (and women particularly) is a gaping wound in the heart of the nation.