The Power of the Dog Family Review

Charismatic rancher Phil Burbank inspires fear and awe in those around him. When his brother brings home a new wife and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank is brutally beguiling. All of Phil's romance, power and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land: He can castrate a bull calf with two swift slashes of his knife; he swims naked in the river, smearing his body with mud. He is a cowboy as raw as his hides. The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers are wealthy ranchers in Montana. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose, the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter. Phil behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, revelling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter - all except his brother George, 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?—Netflix1925 rural Montana. Harbouring a silent but discernible disagreement over everything, the polar opposite Burbank brothers--swaggering, boorish Phil and dapper, mild-mannered George--have been running the family's prosperous ranch for decades. Owing his charisma and unrelenting competence to his late mentor "Bronco" Henry, Phil takes great pleasure in bullying his soft-spoken sibling, utterly unaware that change is on its way. As a chance encounter with widowed lodging house owner Rose and her sensitive teenage son Peter leads to an unexpectedly profound bond, suddenly, mean Phil chooses to shift his focus away from his worries and concentrate on the quiet boy--an easy target. And, more and more, harassment and abuse pave the way for depression and alcoholism. But, sometimes, secrets hide in plain sight. Can a bloated, noxious ego lead to destruction?—Nick Riganas