Review of The Power of the Dog (2021) by Unclewillard — 20 Dec 2021

Misses the mark for me. While beautifully shot, it tries to be too many things, and fails at all. Phil is not the villain we're led to believe, nor Rose the saint. George is practically absent, as is any kind of weight to any of the characters. Their motivations are entirely mysterious to us and never resolved in any meaningful way. If this is about toxic masculinity, as Cumberbatch recently lectured all us menfolk on, where is it in this film? Is Phil toxic? Or a product of his times? Is Rose noble because she, lost her first husband? Has a gay son? Married George? Or are we seriously supposed to believe that Phil picking on her was the source of all that suffering? In the end, Phil is the only one who tries to make a meaningful connection to Peter.

If this is some diatribe against toxic masculinity, the only thing we learn is that Campion has no idea what that is.