This rub of the rough against the smooth-of wilder ways confronting more cultivated ones-will be familiar to followers of Campion. We learn that he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale, yet refinement of any sort disgusts him when the governor of the state comes to dine, George requests that Phil clean himself up beforehand. By contrast, his brother, Phil ( Benedict Cumberbatch), cuts a lean and leathery figure and spurns the trappings of his affluence, preferring the great outdoors. George Burbank (Jesse Plemons) is stout, compliant, and ill at ease even on horseback, he wears a black suit. Their bastion is a mansion, richly furnished, with dark wood panelling, like a gentlemen’s club. This is especially true of the Burbank clan. As Annie Proulx has noted, in an afterword to Savage’s book, few of us can understand “the combination of hard physical work and quiet wealth that characterized some of the old ranches.” We are in ranching country, though where we are, at any given moment, isn’t always clear it takes a while to get one’s bearings, economic as much as geographical. What’s undeniable is the glory of the hills, camel-colored and weirdly folded, that loom in the backdrop of the tale. Whether it fulfills the role convincingly-not least in regard to trees and vegetation-is a question that only Montanans will be qualified to answer. The year is 1925, and the place is Montana, which is played onscreen by Campion’s native New Zealand. The title echoes the Twenty-second Psalm, in the King James Bible: “Deliver my soul from the sword my darling from the power of the dog.” As the movie ends, you can’t help asking yourself: Who exactly is the dog, and who’s the darling? The new film from Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog,” is based on Thomas Savage’s novel of the same name, published in 1967.
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