Netflix and Oscar-winning writer/director Jane Campion make their bid for 2021 awards glory with this adaptation of Thomas Savage’s novel. The story follows brothers Phil and George Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemons, respectively), a pair of wealthy cattle barons herding cows across the Montana wilderness.
Along the drive, the pair meet Rose (Kristen Dunst), a widowed inn owner with a teen son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Phil has nothing but contempt for Rose and Peter, making fun of the boy’s lisp, artistic inclinations, and effete demeanor. George, however, finds himself smitten with Rose, and quickly marries her without telling Phil. It quickly becomes evident that even George is terrified of Phil’s bullying.
Rose and Peter move into the Burbank mansion, where she quickly begins to drink heavily to quell her Phil-related anxiety. Peter, meanwhile, ships off to boarding school to study medicine. When he returns for the summer, he finds his mother a drunken mess and immediately becomes the target of Phil & his ranch hands’ taunting. Then something strange happens: Phil begins to take an odd interest in Peter. Peter, meanwhile begins to spy on Phil and uncovers his obsession with his former mentor, Bronco Henry.
More than that we’ll not say here, as The Power of the Dog has more than a few shocking twists. Much like Brokeback Mountain before it, at its core The Power of the Dog presents a meditation on masculinity.
Unlike Brokeback, however, which used masculine identity as a prism through which to view a same-sex romance, Dog sees what happens when masculine identity and same-sex attraction work against one another. For the characters in this movie, gay impulses violate masculinity rather than edify it. Thus, the need to feel masculine becomes both maddening and violent. Call it the anti-Brokeback Mountain.