 |
| Images courtesy Amazon |
Writer/director/producer Hugo Blick made a name for himself over the last 20 years by helming numerous television series and mini-series for the BBC, including the disturbing The Shadow Line (2011) and the intricate An Honorable Woman (2014) with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Blick’s newest series tells the story of a British mother who pairs up with a Pawnee solider in the American West in The English (2022).
Blick is trying out a new genre, and it works well in almost all scenes except for a few. While hard to pin down, either a small bit of dialogue or a well-worn Western cliché can break the spell for the viewer. These few moments, though, are passed over quickly, and the viewer’s attention is stolen by the jaw-dropping cinematography in almost every scene.
Grand, colorful vistas of desert flowers and scrub or what look like hand-painted cloud formations with fiery reds, oranges or purples provide the backdrop while characters on horses or near bodies of water, often seeming to be just black shapes against such vibrant backgrounds, further the plot. The costumes in the first episode alone pop with so much color that the viewer could expected a more artsy meta-western that’s more about the art direction than the plot or characters. However, this is a more traditional Western that delivers the goods and the frontier justice in a very satisfying way.
Emily Blunt plays Cornelia Locke, a mother who’s traveled to the American West in the 1880s to get revenge on a man she believes killed her son. She learns the hard way that her money and British privilege don’t get her very far once she arrives in Oklahoma, but, in true Emily Blunt fashion, she surprises other characters with her strength and ability to kill.
Though she doesn’t get to brandish a shotgun in this series, Blunt’s character utilizes rifles, handguns, and even a bow and arrow. Her character’s strength pairs well with Eli Whipp, played with amazing stoicism and humanity by Chaske Spencer. Whipp’s character serves to illustrate so much of conflict and complexity of the story in that he is a Pawnee warrior who served in the Civil War in order to earn his own plot of land. Hated by his and the other tribes in the West for serving and also by any non-military white men for just existing, he just wants a few acres to settle on (even though the land he was promised was stolen from his and other First Nations peoples).
Cornelia and Eli’s interests and honor turn them into traveling companions and further intertwine their lives with each other. Blunt and Spencer’s great chemistry leaves the viewer wishing they were constantly on screen together instead of having some scenes apart.
Also in the cast is a well-disguised Stephen Rea and Rafe Spall, whose character often becomes a distraction. Spall, a solid actor, oftentimes seems to channel Tom Hardy’s more villainous roles with the character David Melmont. Melmont’s role in the story, along with other significant plot points, are revealed at a solid pace that keeps the mystery engaging and potent.
There’s plenty of savagery in these six episodes, but some of the most graphic violence takes place off screen. And, like many Korean crime dramas, some bloody scenes are constructed and displayed in such an artful way that it rivals the rest of the series’ cinematography.
All episodes are currently streaming on Prime.
-Eric Beach