The Claim
"One of the year's best films!" -Jeffrey Lyons
Against the dramatic backdrop of the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains, The Claim's richly textured story of love, betrayal, loss and redemption unfolds. This "beautifully acted" (Premiere) tale strikes pure gold with an all-star cast featuring Wes Bentley (American Beauty), Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element), Peter Mullan (Miss Julie), Sarah Polley (Go) and Nastassja Kinski (Tess) and is "one of the best movies in recent memory" (Elle).
It's 1869 and Daniel Dillon (Mullan) has made a fortune off his claim to gold-rich property in California. He knows that if his prosperity is to continue, he must convince a railroad planner (Bentley) to connect the new line through his town. But the plans to bring the train are derailed when, on a cold, wintry day, a mother (Kinski) and daughter (Polley) mysteriously arrive, revealing a shocking connection to Dillon...one that could devastate his town, his life and his empire.
Member Reviews
Dis-Claim-er - cinecynic
Although I rated this movie as liking it, I was very disappointed. There is hardly any plot here, and the characters are mostly not portrayed to offer much depth. What begins as a pretty-looking film about life in an isolated mining camp soon becomes just a story about a man who forsook a woman and daughter for a claim. That man, Mr. Dillon, becomes incredibly wealthy and ends up basically owning his town of Kingdom Come.
When the wife and daughter return (the daughter now a young woman) and he learns that his former love is seriously ill, he suddenly decides to save her by marrying her the way he should have to begin with (church instead of civil ceremony).
But she must promise to not tell their daughter who he really is--the man who traded them for gold.
At the same time the daughter is falling in love with a railway engineer from the Southern Pacific Railway, who is surveying where to put the railway line in their area. When the engineer can't find a passable route near the town because it's up in some rough mountains, he returns to gather his surveying equipment and tell Dillon that the line will be down in the valley. This is the only time some real conflict occurs, and it's brief.
The film shows a picturesque mountain town in the winter. But there is nothing about the true mining life depicted. The people all seem to mill about lazily in the town, nice and clean. This is so unreal as to be laughable. If you really want to see a film about life in a mining camp in the 1800s, rent Deadwood, an excellent TV series that tries very hard to show it as it was, with a lot more conflict than this dreary film offered.
I found the acting okay, but nothing stand-out. There are some plot points that seem rather pointless, and overall, the story is a big letdown.It Can't Claim Much - Piknik
Beautiful cinematography is about all this film can boast about. Milla was the best cast member; nearly every one else was as bland & lifeless as the snow outside (honourable mentions go to the Canadian actor who was Bucky in Hard Core Logo, and the actress who was Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter). Sarah Polley can't act, although the scene where she cries over her dying mother was half decent. And, the plot was lifted from Thomas Hardy's novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, which was made into a film in 2003 with Ciaran Hinds. A tremendously better film next to this one.The Claim Strikes Gold... - Chops
Despite some performances that I found a little lacking, this is a beautifully filmed movie that has some teeth and shows what life was like back in the days when the railroads meant life to a town, and the measures people would go to in an effort to secure their place on the route.
A good set of intertwining story lines and some marvellous cinematography combine to make this one worth your time.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Dis-Claim-er - cinecynic
Although I rated this movie as liking it, I was very disappointed. There is hardly any plot here, and the characters are mostly not portrayed to offer much depth. What begins as a pretty-looking film about life in an isolated mining camp soon becomes just ...It Can't Claim Much - Piknik
Beautiful cinematography is about all this film can boast about. Milla was the best cast member; nearly every one else was as bland & lifeless as the snow outside (honourable mentions go to the Canadian actor who was Bucky in Hard Core Logo, and the actress ...The Claim Strikes Gold... - Chops
Despite some performances that I found a little lacking, this is a beautifully filmed movie that has some teeth and shows what life was like back in the days when the railroads meant life to a town, and the measures people would go to in an effort to secure ...