The Power of the Dog
Year: 2021
Rating: R
Length: 126 minutes / 2.10 hours
Every once in a while, a movie comes along and gets a lot of award buzz. Often, these movies exhibit some traits of highly lauded films that came before them. Critics often think these latter films can “make up” for snubs of previous movies that they think should have won awards but did not. The Power of the Dog (2021) seems to fit this bill as the spiritual successor to Brokeback Mountain (2005) with its heavy tones of homosexuality in the lonely and harsh setting of the west.
The problem I have with The Power of the Dog is how the main character, Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a prime example of toxic masculinity—to the point where it’s almost parody. Sure, the audience wants to see him get what’s coming to him, but we also have to sit through two hours of him being an incredibly manipulative and abusive person to those around him. There is no subtlety here. It also doesn’t help that this movie basically smashes the homosexual undertones of the old west into our faces, giving the audience the same winking nods to a male-dominated portion of our history that has been alluded to for decades.
It’s too bad that I really don’t like this movie because the acting in it is quite exemplary. Sure, Benedict Cumberbatch plays a convincing asshole, but it only works with the contrast to the characters played by Kirsten Dunst and Kodi Smit-McPhee. The setting was beautiful (despite not really looking like the area it was supposed to be) and the cinematography worked well to convey the story. I have to appreciate films like these for their artistry, even if I heavily sigh at their heavy-handed approach to their themes.
Overt toxic masculinity presented to an audience weary of it, I give The Power of the Dog 3.0 stars out of 5.
