Women should play more westerns in the lead roles; this leads to a different perspective and a change in the content itself. The Emmy-winning Netflix miniseries Godless (2017) certainly helped set some things in motion, and the recent Emily Blunt miniseries The English was phenomenal. In recent years it has been fun to have the well-known Heather Graham (Boogie Nights, Hangover) love the genre and have recently been in The Last Son and finished filming The Gunslingers with Nicolas Cage. And now there is Location of the bonesa western thriller.
Touted as a horror thriller, it is actually unfortunate that Location of the bones doesn’t rely enough on the horror elements of home invasion films. Directed by Audrey Cummings, the screenplay was written by Richard Taylor. Location of the bones is generally straightforward with its Western tropes, but Tom Hopper makes a good villain and the consistent female-dominated energy breathes new life into the genre.
Heather Graham presents Pandora’s Box of Survival Tips
In Location of the bonesGraham plays a sympathetic, stubborn mother and has lost none of the energy or charm she had 25 years ago in Austin Powers. It also helps that she’s given a great symbolic name in her new western, Pandora, but by the time we meet her, the reclusive outlaw has already had a rough ride. She’s a widow, and her late husband’s “place of bones” is buried just yards from their secluded mountain residence.
It’s a sad but peaceful sight: Pandora living confidently in a routine that works with her teenage daughter Hester (Brielle Robillard). Graham is reliably appealing in everything she appears in. Here, she puts on a unique Southern accent as she whips her only offspring into shape, all in the name of safety – which, of course, becomes more and more threatening as it progresses, just as any memorable Western thriller promises.
The threat comes in the form of a badly injured outlaw, who we later learn is named Calhoun (Corin Nemec). Pandora may already be familiar with the saying “when death comes knocking at your door,” as she is none too pleased by Calhoun’s impromptu visit when he literally collapses on her doorstep with a bloody, bullet-ridden leg.
The evil Tom Hopper comes hot
Pandora certainly has a moral core—another reason why we prefer the strict mother in this story—which is why she doesn’t exactly push Calhoun out of the way when he makes an unannounced visit. Instead, she takes him in, tends to his wounds, and feeds him—but Location of the bones always lives from a throughline of female empowerment, meaning Pandora doesn’t simply bow to the man in front of her. She means business, as portrayed by Graham’s beautiful yet piercing eyes – is she aging, by the way?
She wants to get rid of him as soon as possible, especially because she is obviously intelligent and notices Calhoun’s growing sense of shady nature as soon as he comes to and evades questions about what brought him to this lowly station. As we eventually learn, Calhoun is being hunted by a villainous bank robber and his gang of crooks. The boss, who is after Calhoun’s blood, is called Bear John and is played with a certain ferocity from the start. The Umbrella Academy Star Tom Hopper, miles away from his recent charming rom-com role in Space Cadet.
A formulaic action finale
At least Hopper’s Bear John provokes a healthy dose of shoot ’em up action in Location of the bonesjust when moviegoers might be starting to worry that things are unfortunately coming to a standstill in Pandora’s house. It’s certainly funny to watch her and Calhoun bicker and insult each other in southern accents for once, but the film takes far too long to essentially get to the point. And as a result, we can’t get enough of Tom Hopper’s great villain.
When the showdown actually comes, the fire in Pandora’s wild and powerful soul is ignited, and she more than holds her own. It’s great to see Pandora assuage her grief through cathartic acts of violence, but ultimately it’s a run-of-the-mill conclusion that plays out in a predictable way. The film should have relied more on the touted, intense violence, with Location of the bones While it never matches the intensity and innovation of the must-have Western thrillers, it is still a serviceable film with an appreciated focus on the life of a widow.
From the Avenue, Location of the bones was released on August 23 in theaters and on digital platforms such as YouTube, Google Play and Apple TV via the following link:
Watch Place of Bones
