The Power of the Dog

Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Slow West) star in this family feud drama based on Thomas Savage's novel, written and directed by Oscar winner Jane Campion (The Piano).

The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers (Cumberbatch & Plemons) are wealthy ranchers in Montana. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose (Dunst), the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter (Smit-McPhee). Phil (Cumberbatch) behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, reveling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter - all except his brother George (Plemons), who comforts Rose then returns to marry her.

As Phil swings between fury and cunning, his taunting of Rose takes an eerie form - he hovers at the edges of her vision, whistling a tune she can no longer play. His mockery of her son is more overt, amplified by the cheering of Phil's cowhand disciples. Then Phil appears to take the boy under his wing. Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or a plot twisting further into menace?