Psie pazury

A film where the protagonists look at each other in different acting positions and almost all the time, where the music supports the overall tension and a kind of invisible suspense, with the camera taking rolling panoramas of Montana. A lot could happen, but in the end nothing really does. A poorly made film by a director who obviously wanted to replicate the fragility and poetry of Pian, but incorporating it into a gritty western doesn't work. I don’t get the Oscar, I believe it put to sleep more than one viewer. And it almost put me to sleep. (19.04.2022)

In this slow chamber drama in a cold autumnal setting, feelings are hardly spoken of and only simmer between the characters, supported by dramatic music that in places is reminiscent of that used in a thriller. Jane Campion again sits down at the piano and this time avoids all of the narrative clichés that occur to the viewer while watching. And with a careful psychological study of the characters, she transforms the film into a work of art that poses more questions than it answers. The Power of the Dog is interesting and distinctive, with the nature of a festival film. But it left me cold. Cumberbatch is brilliant. (09.12.2021)

Burbank, played by Benedict Cumberbatch in a devilishly nasty yet hypnotically appealing performance, is a character that hasn't appeared in a film since perhaps 2007, when There Will Be Blood and the oil-soaked Daniel Plainview, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, burst into cinemas. The Power of the Dog is a fascinatingly odd film, where you suspect every minute that something terrible is going to happen, and it usually does. Those who want a classic western, or even a modern western, go elsewhere. Those who want a dense, ruthless, ugly and dusty showcase of madness should wait for the right mood and put on Power of the Dog. (05.12.2021)

Humble, beautifully filmed, full of dramatic scenery and subliminal tension, which is, however, quite forcefully injected by Johnny Greenwood's sometimes shallow underscore. Campion's script is unfocused and the plot, divided into fragments, doesn't create coherent dramatic tension, and in the end it kind of depends on the power of chance, and I therefore struggled with the point rather than lived it. The strongest motif is not the son's love for his mother or the misalignment of the two reclusive characters, but rather the relationship between the two brothers, which quietly fades from the plot after about half an hour, much like Jesse Plemons outplaying the rest of the cast. The result is a diet broth of There Will Be Blood and In Fabric. An elegant piece that barks but doesn't bite. (08.12.2021)

Kodi Smit-Mcphee is going to have a hard time from the LGBT community. The Power of the Dog is a really weird family drama set in Montana in 1925, where it seems a key scene is missing, but wait! That’s on purpose. The characters suddenly change their demeanor thanks to something that happens off-camera. Campion simply hints at it and leaves the viewer to do the thinking. So the picture plays through without any sort of catharsis. It all stands on the shoulders of an excellent Cumberbatch who makes the very most of playing the rancher, really enjoying it. (28.10.2021)