1890 British aristocrat Cornelia (Emily Blunt) travels to the Wild West to find the man she believes responsible for her son’s death and seek revenge on him. The guest’s American residents are not very happy: in the new land he is greeted with a blow to the face, and the owner of the hotel is greeted with sadistic tendencies.
But the latter’s plan is not destined to come true: even upon arrival, Cornelia shows kindness by defending a Pawnee Indian named Eli (Chesk Spencer), who has just fallen into the clutches of a cruel businessman. Released to freedom, Elijah nonetheless returns and saves Cornelia, but insists he is driven not by a sense of justice but by a desire for vengeance – the desire to unite them with Cornelia.
Contrary to their original plans, the Native American and English woman embark on a joint journey pursuing different goals: Elijah wants to return the land taken from him, Cornelia wants to find the culprit in her child’s death. They have a challenging and exciting road ahead of them, where they will face many obstacles and dangerous challenges of fate.
The English Woman was written and filmed solo by Briton Hugo Bleek, a powerful and original writer who is sadly little known to a wide audience. Bleek likes to put bright and unconventional heroines at the center of her stories: “Noble Woman” with Maggie Gyllenhaal was embroiled in a scandal between Israelis and Palestinians, and “Black Earth Rising” with Michaela Koel talked about her adoption by a girl from Rwanda. . A British prosecutor who returns to a country crippled by the Holocaust to understand his personal destiny by understanding the history of his homeland.
As you can see, Bleek loves to intrigue with opposing forces, which must be placated by those who are not ready for it but do not give up at an important moment of choice.
The English woman is also built on contrasts: Cornelia and Elijah are people from different worlds. He reads the way through the stars, and he believes in astrology, to which British high society has just recently shown great interest. She just wants to kill someone, during the civil war she herself “saw and created hell”.
The same compatibility of incompatible applies to the format of the project. “The English Woman” is a true aesthetic delight, at times the series resembles a re-enacted comic. Neither Clint Eastwood nor Sergio Leone, who determined the course of this genre, did not shoot such good westerns.
At the same time, in keeping with the format, the project pursues a policy of ruthlessness to the sensibility of the audience – there is always a lot of blood, death and duel typical of a western where only one person comes out alive. This is a world of great lawlessness and syphilis intensifying: if the sheriff cannot keep up with you, then a terrible virus will surely overtake you.
While The Englishwoman successfully mimics the classic cowboy movie, she mostly invents a new form of self-expression for the genre, especially by softening sharp corners and diluting physical violence with warmth. Here, daytime bloodlust is replaced by evening romance: two people can sit in the middle of the desert under a starry sky and mourn their loss and pain, confess their innermost feelings and talk about the power of magic – after all, all this is no coincidence, they had to die many times, but Each time they managed to defeat death.
The series has a weak point – it hangs in the middle when it flashes back to the present and tells its characters’ past stories in flashbacks. While this is an important part of the plot, it seems that the stop in which the protagonists find themselves is more interesting to Bleek than where their journey begins.
And the English Woman works best when she moves from prose to the language of high poetry. Cinematographer Arnau Wals Colomer transforms the visuals of the series into real magic: every frame is like a work of art. Admiring this beautiful (albeit bloody) world, Blik’s unhurried pace makes the viewer part of the events. And composer Federico Husid, along with Cornelia and Elijah, makes the shocked, frightened and loving music an additional protagonist of the story.
It seems that the fashion for westerns, especially for strictly female versions of heroines becoming equal with men (“Iron Grip”, “Local”, “Jane takes a gun”), remained somewhere in the late 2000s. . But Bleek proves it’s too early to say goodbye to the genre and its possibilities are endless.
While “British Woman” in a number of other high-profile premieres was treated kindly by critics from the early days, it has yet to receive the attention it deserves from the audience. Therefore, like the protagonists of the series, I want to ensure justice and pay my respects to the project. It’s a beautiful, clever six-part film in which a poignant drama of human destiny is played out under the endless starry sky and the ending is the most comforting – it’s always that person, even after he leaves life. Hell manages to save the love in his heart.