[Quick Summary: Brothers Phil and George peaceably run a Montana cattle ranch, until George marries widow Rose, who has an adult son Peter.]
I'm quite impressed at how the writer created a gradual crucible for the Rose character (whom I believe is not as fleshed out in the novel).
In fact, it was so effective that I was terribly relieved when Rose drank to escape. I couldn't take much more of Phil either.
The crucible really worked because there was a constant ratcheting up of tension:
- LEVEL 2: Phil decides to mentor her son Peter, in order to spite her.
- LEVEL 3: Cruel Phil baits Rose when she's near the toppling point (see below)
INT. BURBANK RANCH HOUSE/STAIRS/PHIL'S BEDROOM - DAY
Phil finishes climbing the stairs carrying a newly found fossil. In his bedroom he places the fossil inside his display case. Sharp eared Phil hears the drop of the bottle and opens his dormer window peering below. He sees Rose stretched out beside the pit now using a stick to roll a bottle of Whisky toward her, a good inch of the golden liquid at the bottom. As she reaches down to grasp it's neck Phil whistles a short phrase from Rose's Strauss Waltz. Rose pauses and Phil stops whistling. She pulls the Whisky bottle out of the pit and the whistling starts again, Phil above her watches amused. Rose looks all about including back up at the house. She doesn't know if the whistling is real or if she's imagining it. She steps back against the shadows of the wall and swigs the dregs of the bottle.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I'm rarely this moved emotionally to feel such helplessness. I totally understood how alcohol could be justified as a release valve.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
by Jane Campion
Based on The Power of the Dog, by Thomas Savage
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