Film Pick of the Week: Rebuilding - review by Yvette Huddleston
Rebuilding Prime video, review by Yvette Huddleston
Written and directed by Max Walker-Silverman, this affecting American independent movie features a fine performance from Josh O’Connor as gentle, taciturn Colorado rancher Thomas ‘Dusty’ Fraser Jr.
We meet Dusty not long after he has lost his ranch in a swathe of wildfires that have scorched the land and robbed many others like him of their homes, land and livelihood. Dusty is still in shock and struggling to adapt to his new reality. He has been given a job working on highway construction but he is a cowboy at heart, something his bright young 10-year-old daughter Callie Rose (Lily LaTorre) understands. He has a friendly relationship with Callie Rose and his ex-wife Ruby (Meghann Fahy) who live with Ruby’s new partner Robbie (Sam Engbring) and her kind ailing mother Bess (Amy Madigan).
Dusty’s temporary home is a state government-provided trailer in a small camp of similarly affected people. This is where he brings Callie Rose when she is staying with him and she finds it quite exciting, even doing her homework becomes an adventure - they have to drive in Dusty’s pick-up truck to the local library so that she can use the Wifi to complete the tasks on her tablet.
Initially keeping himself to himself, Dusty gradually gets to know his neighbours at the makeshift trailer park and empathises with them as they talk of what they have lost. Slowly a community begins to develop, as they prepare meals together, make music by the campfire and support each other through what is a difficult time for everyone. Among his neighbours is Mali (Kali Reis) who lost her husband in the fires. She is there with her pre-teen daughter who befriends Callie Rose.
As the relationship with his daughter grows stronger, Rusty mulls over whether he should take up his cousin’s offer to go and help out on her ranch in Montana. The obvious downside of that is not being able to see Callie Rose, so he is terribly torn about what he should do next. The script is delicate, well-judged and allows characters room to breathe. The past is deliberately sketchy which engages the viewer, encouraging them to fill in the gaps. Nothing is neat and tidy, relationships are messy, lives are complicated, things go wrong and loss is inevitable, but ultimately there is a glimmer of hope here, for the future and for humanity. Alfonso Herrera Salcedo’s luminous cinematography captures the natural beauty of the stunning landscape.