Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog is a haunting study of loneliness and the yearning for connection, as well as the ways that this isolation can lead us into increasingly destructive behavior – either toward ourselves or others. Each of the film’s four leads is touched by this loneliness in some way, each lost in the vastness of the landscape and haunted by the menacing, discordant score. And while each of these characters choose to address their loneliness and isolation in different ways, each of their flailing attempts at connection contributes to the film’s chilling tragedy. All of the performances are outstanding here, each perfectly calibrated to play off of each other’s strengths. The naturalistic cinematography is glorious – capturing the natural world that Phil loves so well, while the shadows hide and allow everyone else to be oblivious to his secrets. In the hands of a lesser storyteller, Rose’s narrative would be incidental to Phil’s story, but in Campion’s hands, we’re given so much of her perspective in the film’s early chapters, enabling us have empathy for her plight. This is a rich, beautiful, haunting, and heartbreaking film in equal measure.