Rating: 2.5/5
The film opens to the sound of wind and a shovel pulling dirt out of the ground — the sun rises, the silhouettes of seas chickens hanging across the horizon, and a single figure digging
Dressed in rags, Rosalie drags the body of a senior man to the hole, throwing in a gun and a bag of gold pieces. She sings a song to the rising sun
Roslie hitches across New Mexico, getting a ride from traveling salesman Virgil (Ken Howard, AKA Hank Hooper from 30 Rock) to her grandfather’s ranch
When they arrive, however, it isn’t a ranch but a cabin in the middle of nowhere, and Grandpa is missing. Worse still, Virgil’s car pops a flat while stuck in the mud. Then, when he least expects it, Rosalie breaks his leg
Rosalie is a girl with no education, living in backwaters where no one can find her, which means no one sees her. So, in her capture of Virgil, she begins a strange courtship in which she promises to care for him and make him fall in love with her if only he’d give her the chance
Virgil, on the other hand, cannot hide his contempt for Rosalie, throwing insults at her that I don’t feel comfortable writing out — though he tries to mix his venom with niceties, Rosalie sees through his words
Though compared to Misery, the two stories feel pretty different. I will say that Misery’s story has enough variety to keep it from getting monotonous — here, we have the same conversations over and over until circumstances change — logical and realistic, but not all that entertaining
Still, there are entertaining moments, and the ending is a surprise that fits the narrative. It’s not a movie I’d watch again, but nothing offensively wrong with it beyond the tired gender politics of the era