Hope: Sarah Polley	Dillon: Peter Mullan
Elena: Nastassja Kinski	Mr. Dalglish: Wes Bentley
Lucy: Milla Jovovich	Annie: Shirley Henderson
Mr. Sweetly: Sean McGinley	Bellanger: Julian Richings
Director: Michael Winterbottom

30 Second Bottom Line: A woman, separated from her husband for twenty years, reunites their daughter with him, so that after she dies of her terminal illness, the daughter will not be forced into prostitution to support herself. This is just the tip of the iceberg of an epic story; told over the course of a few months. It depicts the building of western towns in America, the importance of the railroad to our pioneer culture and economy, and the limited choices women had to take care of themselves.

Story Line: The story is set in 1867 in a mining town called Kingdom Come, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, not far from Sacramento, California. It was once a boomtown, but its best days are bygone and its future is uncertain. Dillon (Peter Mullan) is the benevolent dictator of Kingdom Come, who rules with a strong compassion. He is the sheriff and owns a thriving saloon that offers entertainment by selling drinks, tobacco and women. Dillon is the law of the land as he functions as the judge, jury and executioner. He alone decides if a person is hung for an offense, given 50 lashes, or if he thinks they "won't do it again," he can commute the sentence to 25 lashes. His rule is so firm that he is the only man in town with a gun at his side. Residents and visitors must place their guns in storage.

Elena (Nastassja Kinski) and her daughter Hope (Sarah Polley) arrive in Kingdom Come and take up residence at the local hotel. At the same time Mr. Dalglish (Wes Bentley) and his crew from the Central Pacific Railroad (CPR) descend on the town as well. When a man asks Hope to give him a good ride for a dollar, Dalglish attacks him to defend her honor. This act ingratiates Dalglish to Hope, and is the beginning of a romance that appears destined to blossom. But this is not your typical, predictable love affair, so things will probably not go as you might think.

Lucy (Milla Jovovich), the madam of the saloon and Dillon's lady, becomes jealous when he appears to have a romantic interest in Hope. The reason Elena and Hope are in town is that Elena is dying and she wants Dillon, whom Hope does not know is her father, to care for her. At this time in the west, a woman without money or a husband often had no choice except prostitution to survive.

Twenty years earlier Elena and Dillon were married and Hope was their infant child. Dillon and his family barely survived the Mt. Everest type conditions on the mountain (see the book Into Thin Air : A Personal Account of... ), when they were saved by a man who had a claim on property, which would one day be called Kingdom Come. Dillon was desperate for gold and the unnamed man who saved them was desperate for a woman. They struck a deal in which Dillon sold his wife and child in exchange for the claim of gold. Although Elena told them both that she was not property to be sold, she went along with it because her choices were limited to the deal, going back into the storm or into prostitution.

Dalglish is an engineer for CPR, whose job it is to select the route of the railroad. This often would make or break a town, and the losers may be so angry that they want to kill the messenger, in this case the RR representative. With the budding attraction between Hope and Dalglish, and the potential conflict between Dalglish and Dillon if another route for the railroad is selected, it becomes clear that shots will likely be fired.

Dillon tries to do the right thing to redeem himself to his daughter, which makes it difficult for him to focus on what is good for the town. Can you ever make up for the sin of literally abandoning and selling your wife and child for money? The Claim is a gripping story about redemption.

Tell Me More About It: My biggest fault with this movie is a glaring technical one. A large, beautifully decorated house is moved, on its foundation, down a steep hill, with all its contents inside. The next scene shows the piano, vases, and pictures on the wall as they were before the relocation. All they had to do was take a few minutes to show people moving things back into the house to maintain the realistic gritty feel that is so superbly done elsewhere throughout the film.

Some people in the audience felt that the movie was photographed too darkly, but I believe the cinematography is not only right on the money, but also of Oscar caliber. It was bright enough to be comfortable yet convey the true mood of the times. For example, in the saloon, candles are lit and hoisted to the ceiling on a candelabra chandelier.

As I did with Traffic, even with major flaws, this film gets four stars because it is outstanding in so many aspects. With respect to prostitution, it's a better film on that subject than American Pimp, which was a film I admired. The reason Elena allowed herself to be sold was because in the same breath that she said, " I'm not your property," she also understood her options. A young woman with a child, in the wilderness, with no money, has very limited choices.

We see women who are whores that have to make a quota as if they are on a modern day production line in a factory…so many per hour. When Annie (Shirley Henderson), a prostitute is bought by Bellanger (Julian Richings), they immediately sense something beyond the moment, as she is inclined to spend extra time with him, when she needs to go service other customers. They continue to see one another until they become engaged. It's shocking to see and understand that Annie continues to sell her body until they are married. Who's to say that he will ever return from his work on the railroad? She was good enough for him on day 1,580 (pick any big number) after sleeping with innumerable men, if she sleeps with another 100, how does that change anything? She can always stop when he makes his commitment. It's a classic case of mind over matter.

The Claim is a thought provoking film in the way it conveys death and big businesses of the day (not meant to be related topics). Elena does not have the luxury of a local hospital or doctor that can administer a morphine drip to ease the pain, for what is suspected to be a deadly and painful cancer in her body. When it is clear that "time is short," she is in great pain and her death is extremely difficult for her, Dillon and Hope. This was life before Hospice and medical coverage. How very lucky we are.

After WWII the things that tended to define which cities would thrive were those that had interstate highways going through them; built the most modern sports stadiums or managed to get an NFL or NBA franchise. One hundred thirty years ago, it was the town that had the saloon and general store, with a railroad (cord of steel) that signaled that commerce could be supported. In economics, you either grow or die; there is no such thing as running in place.

People could literally stake out a claim and start a town from scratch. This was symbolically portrayed by a marriage conducted in a new town, in a church with no roof or sidewalls. The entire town was in that same state of semi construction, with people living in tents.

All things considered, times are tough today but not nearly as challenging as in the 1860's. Some things change and others stay the same. The line in the movie that really hits home is when Elena tells Hope, with the wisdom of a dying mother, "Sometimes you turn away from someone, look back and your life has gone by." We think we understand that because the context is generally something you observe over a period of decades, not days or weeks. But you never know…as Diana Washington says in her most famous song, "Lord, what a difference a day makes…twenty-four little hours."

Sarah Polley: Go	Peter Mullan: My Name is Joe
Nastassja Kinski: Playing by Heart	Wes Bentley: American Beauty
Milla Jovovich: He Got Game	Shirley Henderson: Bridget Jones's Diary
Sean McGinley: The Butcher Boy	Julian Richings: Urban Legend
Michael Winterbottom: Wonderland