The Abandons review – Gillian Anderson’s Western-faced film has some very dodgy screenplay moments | television

AAngel Ridge, Washington Territory, 1854. It’s a dusty place, and there’s a saloon tavern, and there’s horses, and an indescribable feeling – I don’t know, let’s call it manifest destiny – about the place, and the only color the settlers brought with them is sepia. But wait! What is this? Local silver mine owner riding into town? And she’s a woman! In the West?

Yes it is. Not only that, she’s played by Gillian Anderson (in full ice mode, despite the dust) and is clearly a problem. Not only Whichbut a second woman is about to rival her and do battle for the soul of the town over the eight episodes that comprise The Abandons, the latest project from Sons of Anarchy’s Kurt Sutter. It co-leads Lena Headey as Fiona Nolan, a devout Irish Catholic woman who has gathered a group of outcasts from her motley crew of orphans and lives with this patchwork family in Jasper Hollow. Unfortunately, Jasper Hollow is so full of silver that Constance Van Ness (owner of the local mine, played by Anderson) is willing to bring it under her control to appease one of her investors.

The Nolan home and cattle ranch, along with the settlements of the three other honest, hard-working families of the hollow, had been suffering from bad luck ever since the eye of Van Ness had set upon their land. After Constance’s final visit to the city, a group of masked men drive Fiona’s calf to the edge of a cliff, and only the courage of the brave orphans prevents the massacre of the cows.

“Her tyranny is getting worse!” Because there are moments in the screenplay when things are a handful of dollars less than the Golden Age going back 50 years and taking a trip west, says orphan Elias (Nick Robinson). But he’s right, and the mayor, the dirty dog, won’t help. Thus begins the struggle between the strong and the weak, between right and power, between people related by blood and people related to each other by choice. As well as faith, disbelief, loyalty, betrayal, legal justice, and moral justice. It is a very dualistic era.

But Westerners cannot live with conflicts fueled by abstract concepts alone. We have to get more emotionally invested than that, so lovable, lecherous son Willem Van Ness (Toby Hemingway) is hacked to death by Elias’ sister Dahlia (Diana Silvers) after he attempts to rape her. The Nolan clan hides the body but Constance sniffs out the guilt like a ferret in a huff and redoubles her efforts to bring them down. Fiona doubles her salary to unite the four families of Jasper Hollow against the tyranny of the Mongoose. In the end, a dead dog swings the vote and the fight actually continues.

Added to this mix is ​​the outlaw Roche (Michel Huismann), who is linked to daughter Constance by a mutual love of Schubert, and we all know where Which can lead. She and Elias were looking at each other as well, which was no small feat in such a dusty environment. Timothy joins Murphy as Father Daffy, Fiona’s childhood friend and lifelong support. Is that kind of wise to trust a priest? Is there? We’ll see.

Like most Westerns, The Abandons pushes you to distraction because it takes itself so seriously. Maybe when America gets a little older, it will be able to laugh at itself a little more, or at least allow a little more light and shadow into the retelling of its origin story. But at the moment, the result is often too heavy to make a proper trip.

Would the twist of making the warring parties mothers instead of patriarchs help? a little. But the novelty wears off faster than it would when their concerns remain the same as they’ve always been: protecting family legacies (whether found family or otherwise) and rallying the privileged against the privileged, seemingly untouchable few.

Many of The Abandons’ concerns are better examined and more interesting in 2022 English (a revisionist Western also reviewed by Hugo Blick and starring Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer as two rootless beings who discover the meaning of freedom). But it remains a thoughtful and fundamentally sound production – and the script improves in quality if not depth. Overall, The Abandons succeeds, because mythology by definition always succeeds. She wants to see the Nolans win, she wants to eradicate corruption, she wants to restore the moral order. In the real, non-mythical world, we need our imaginations.