It's 1867 in the town of Kingdom Come, Sierra Nevada, California. Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan) runs the town. Donald Dalglish (Wes Bentley) comes to town to survey for the railroad. Lucia (Milla Jovovich) is a singer. Hope Burn (Sarah Polley) comes to town with her mother Elena (Nastassja Kinski) looking for her father. Twenty years ago, Dillon had sold his wife and daughter to another gold miner for a mine.It's moody, gritty, and meandering at first. It's not clear what's going on or even who the main characters are. It's a mystery slowly unraveled. It does payoff but it makes the audience work for it. It doesn't always flow fluidly. There is a stark beauty to the mountain location and the tragic characters.

***Spoiler alert of a difficult scene involving horses*** Although overall a beautifully filmed movie with a great story, there is one scene that I'll never be able to get out of my head, that of the exploding chemical detonation materials wagon used by the surveyors of the railroad. It was not so much the presumed facsimile (were they?) animal parts lying in the snow near the burning, blown up wagon, but the haunting image (for what seemed an eternity) of the surviving horse dashing full speed away from the remains with it's body mostly on fire. I kept waiting for relief, for the fire to be quenched, but alas, this horse never did "drop and roll", and the scene is cut without resolution. As the movie was filmed on location in both Canada and the United States (Colorado), I waited expectantly to see the AHA credit (or Canadian equivalent) roll at the end to assure that indeed, no animals were harmed in the making of this film. There was no AHA credit or any other disclaimer. I searched online to see if anything had been written about this scene, and whatever happened to that horse, but have been unable to find any additional information. I want to believe that it was special effects, that the horse was not harmed. But it looked too real, and I'm sure that was the desired effect, to reflect what historically happened to working horses of that era.Please, if anyone has any other information to share about this particular scene, kindly post it. I don't want to discredit this otherwise engaging movie just because of this scene, if its animal actors were truly protected during filming.Thank you.

The scenery is breathtaking, and the pervasive sense of cold in the high Sierra in winter is communicated well with a howling wind that will have you wanting to curl up near a nice hot fire.Unfortunately the rest of the movie will make you want to go to sleep. There is one stereotype after another of the old west portrayed in the bar/bordello and the main plot creaks out at a snails pace, telegraphing every move well in advance. Dillon the Younger sells his wife in exchange for a gold claim. He builds a little town empire that he rules like a king. Then Dillon the Elder gives it all up with guilt and remorse and literally burns it down.OK. And? Would anyone actually do this? The central plot is unconvincing to say the least. A man who is coldly calculating enough to sell his young wife and child suddenly leaves his beautiful mistress 'to make it right' with no explanation as to the source of this massive change in attitude. And yet he is too weak to tell his daughter that he is her father until her mother is dead? There is no consistency here at all.Yet it could still be interesting if there were some underlying tension developed, perhaps with a twist or two. But alas it just plods along, the actors almost sleepwalking through their parts until the slow as molasses in December ending.Very disappointing.

Beautiful screening of Hardy's novel which, while just 1.20 minutes long ,achieves epic proportions due to it's well paced narrative, great acting and setting, some breathtaking winter landscapes. The music is great with a special mention to the performances of Lucia.The movie tells the story of a family divided by the greed and naivety of the man, greatly played by Peter Mullan, who sells his wife and young daughter for a claim to a gold-rich land property. He will achieve wealth, but will always be haunted by his past. Twenty years later he will try to make amens, but will have to pay the ultimate price in order to regain his honor.While shot in a blue tint, the movie is very colorful in depicting the life of multi-ethnic immigrants, as well as the life in the American gold rush at the turn of the 19-th century and also the end of a town which fate didn't favor to be crossed by the yet to be built railway. The ballad of Noreen Bawn remains haunting and furthermore accentuates hardship and turmoil these settlers went through their quest for a new life, gold, or redemption.