The Power of the Dog is western psychological drama directed by Jane Campion

After 12 years since has last motion picture, the director comes back with a very powerful film featuring amazing performances by it's cast.

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It is very sad to go to an empty cinema. But since they reopened local cinemas, they haven't received as much in-person audience as before the pandemic. Also many people have signed contracts with Netflix among others, who have been working on their own exclusive content projects for you to subscribe to their channel.

"The Power of the Dog" directed by Jane Campion (An Angel at My Table, The Piano) is in theaters and available on Netflix. Filmed in New Zealand, which in the film becomes the state of Montana, circa 1925 telling the story of wealthy Burbank brothers Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George (Jesse Plemmons) who run their ranch that they inherited from their families.

The two live alone and clearly George takes care of financial matters, always dresses very well, being very polite and respected by everyone around him, as well as being indirectly ridiculed by his opposite brother, Phil, who without vanities is almost always dirty and isolated from everything and everyone but who always prefers to work directly with the cowboys always more arrogant and rebellious. That praises a deceased cowboy named "Bronco" Henry - which we'll find out about his story later.

Shortly afterwards we will be introduced to two important characters in this story. The widow Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst) manages a restaurant with the help of her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) a boy who has a sensitivity for drawings and studies medicine as well as making paper flowers that decorate the restaurant's tables.

George, who apparently already knew Rose, brings Phil and the other cowboys to eat at the restaurant. Noticing the paper flowers on the table Phil makes a comment in which he insinuates that he would like to meet the delicate lady who made the same paper flowers, in which Peter then approaches the table and tells Phil that he actually had done them.

Morbidly pleased to find out the truth, Phil begins humiliating Peter in front of the other cowboys. Rose tries to convince her son to try to ignore the situation but Kodi, deeply hurt by Phil's disagreements, leaves much to his mother's dismay.

George approaches Rose and tries to remedy the situation and even talks to Phil about it, but his rebellious brother almost ignores him again. From this point the plot of the film is formed, because George decides to marry Rose, who moves to the Ranch and enrolls her son in a medical school with financial support from. Phil, that truly believes that Rose is about his brother’s money, becomes annoyed by the entire sequence of events and isolates himself further, becoming a sort of challenge and unwelcome presence around the house.

The story becomes even richer when several other small events happen making this film much more interesting in the psychological, dramatic and sexual situations that will also happen because director Jane Campion delivers this story, based on the book by Thomas Savage of the same name, in small doses so that it is processed little by little due to its complexity. Phil is the center of everything and everyone, and like all the other characters feel his presence quite intensely even when he is not present.

Cumberbatch studied this character carefully, once again doing meticulous work, his trademark. As per Wikipedia, he researched the Lewis & Clark expeditions, learned to ride a horse, shoot rope, castrate cattle and learned to play the banjo in order to prepare for the movie.

The wonderful cinematography is by Ari Wegner who studied old photographs from the period in which the story takes place and the result is of incredible beauty. So is the smooth and eclectic music of Jonny Greenwood.

As a whole, the film, in my opinion, is a great experience challenging and testing the limits of understanding in a very subtle way.

No scene is wasted, and despite the complexity, as the mysteries unfold, the film earns credit.

Probably multiple views will enhance your appreciation.

When everything comes to its conclusion, the film allows several interpretations of everything we watched during its 126 minutes of duration. The title will also be explained at the end through a biblical psalm that also suggests multiple interpretations, but I see this in a very positive way, because in the end my experience was quite enriching and that is not little these days.