'Slow West': A Scottish wanderer in the wilderness

John Maclean's directorial debut, Slow West, is breathtakingly gorgeous. As its title suggests, the film takes place on the frontier, specifically in 19th-century Colorado.

Maclean, a founder of the Scottish musical group Beta Band, takes full advantage of the scenery, giving free rein to cinematographer Robbie Ryan, who fills the screen's expanse with the untouched majesty of the wilderness. (It's not an American wilderness we are seeing, however. The film was shot in New Zealand.)

As mountains loom in the background, though, there's darkness on the ground.

Jay Cavendish (The Road's Kodi Smit-McPhee), a very young 16, emigrates from Scotland to find his love, who deserted their homeland after what Jay refers to as an accident and for which he takes the blame. It's a wonder that Jay, with little more knowledge of what to expect than could be gleaned from a guide book, makes it far enough to meet Silas (Michael Fassbender). The latter is a mysterious traveler who serves as narrator and is wont to speak in poetic phrases, such as, "There are few of us left, men beyond the law. But the most dangerous are the last to fall."

Silas makes a deal with the aristocratic Jay to take him to his girl, Rose (Caren Pistorius), a peasant living on the edge of a forest with her father (Game of Thrones' Rory McCann).

On their travels, Jay and Silas encounter all manner of people, good and brutal, the most menacing in the form of the wonderful Ben Mendelsohn, who slinks around in a fur coat that envelops his entire body.

Smit-McPhee's face is perfectly open and innocent, embodying a hope that thrusts travelers into uncharted territories, while Fassbender's Silas is full of cynicism. Where Jay sees beauty, Silas sees harsh reality.

Maclean's film is a wonderfully dreamy, if meandering, take on the western. Like all movies that use their fantastic surroundings, Slow West is best seen on a big screen.

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@mollyeichel