Anyway, the two share an immediate chemistry, but Vivienne is being aggressively courted by a wealthy, pompous art collector called Lewis, played by Colin Morgan. Weary of his suffocating, upper-class expectations, Vivienne is delighted to bump into Olsen, who represents the exact opposite. So Vivienne, rebellious spirit in hand, walks away from Upper Class Twit of the Year, leaves the civilisation of the city and heads off to make a life with Olsen in his remote cabin in northern Nevada, near a frontier town called Elk Flats.
The film jumps about the timeline a lot, but it's obvious where we are at any given point, even without captions to guide us. In fact, the film opens with Olsen hunched over Vivienne's deathbed as she drifts away - and most of the film flashes back to before that, focusing very much on their relationship building, their bond and growing love. There are some scenes later on which depict the aftermath, but it's mostly done to mop up the loose ends and round the story off.
Vivienne is initially shocked by the remoteness of Olsen's cabin and living situation, hating that there are no trees and greenery, so she works hard to bring colour to the shack by planting roses, bushes and trees. She also takes a job in the town's saloon to help them build a life and fund her desires for their home. She's clearly artistic and, in many ways, ultimately wants more from life than Olsen. In order to preserve her independence, she even refuses to marry him, try though he does.
Elk Flats is a corrupt town entirely under the thumb of a powerful land owner, Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt), the weak-willed Mayor Schiller (Danny Huston) and Jeffries' sadistic, alcoholic son, Weston (Solly McLeod). The sleepy town's peace is broken when the American Civil War breaks out. Driven by a sense of duty to fight against slavery and a need for the $100 enlistment payout, Olsen impulsively decides to join the Union Army. Vivienne is deeply hurt and angered by his choice, which echoes a childhood trauma when her own father went off to war and never returned.
So Olsen clears off, leaving poor Vivienne to her own devices. The spirited Vivienne manages on her own, of course, continuing to work at the saloon. Weston Jeffries turns out to be a violent sociopath who terrorises the town's folk with drunken outbursts, taking the law into his own hands. During these spells, it becomes clear that he has fixated on Vivienne - and with Olsen out of the picture, he fancies his chances! But Vivienne fights him off at every turn, remaining faithful to Olsen, deeply in love. It doesn't stop Weston trying though and behaving badly.
Meanwhile, some time after Olsen has gone away, she gives birth to a boy she calls Vincent, raising him with unconditional love and tenderness. Olsen eventually returns and they resume their life together as a family until, as we found out at the outset, Vivienne gets sick from a fatal illness contracted during the assault. Olsen sits by her bedside as she takes her final, wheezing breath, slipping away while hallucinating an image from her childhood dreams - a medieval knight in shining armour riding through a green forest. Olsen takes young Vincent away on his horse following this and rides as far West as the land will allow, eventually stopping where the frontier meets the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean, reflecting on Vivienne's legacy of love and resilience.
It's a powerful, moving and interesting film, held together perfectly by the quite brilliant Vicky Krieps, previously seen in The Colony (2015), Old (2021), Father Mother Sister Brother (2025), and loads more. She's clearly a very talented actress who can turn her hand to many different roles and speaks multiple languages. Mortensen - Psycho (1998), The Road (2009), The Two Faces of January (2014) is not far behind her, but it is she who steals the show.
Very nicely shot with the scenery looking after itself - dry and dusty mostly, as you'd expect out West - the San Francisco sets are also nicely done, as is the cinematography with great camerawork. This is clearly a bit of a one-man show in terms of production from Mortensen, but he has the sense not to try and hog the limelight, resulting in a very nicely balanced, quiet, but engaging story. Recommended - now available on streaming services in the UK.
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