The Timber (2015) User Reviews (27)

A not-so-good Western, but watchable

[brutzel · 5/10 · 17 September 2016]

In the dead of winter, somewhere in the Northwest 2-brothers, Wyatt (James Ransone) and Samuel (Josh Peck) go bounty hunting for someone who has killed many people. Bringing in this killer will help them save their ranch which is about to go into foreclosure. The killer is their father whom they haven't seen since they were little boys.

The clear winners in here are the cinematography and photography. Kudos. If you did nothing else and turned the sound off and just watched the scenery including some really beautiful horses you would be ahead of the game.

The story is simple enough, but having 2-people trudge along in hip-high snow tired me out too. I was exhausted. Why were they walking? Well, they lost their cart and their horses.

One brother asks Col Rupert Thomas (Mark Caven) their guide and hired gun, "What is the Timber?" The reply was, "it's eventful." Look at The Timber as the BADLANDS. See?

So they journey on and things happen and they meet some mountain men who are bent on killing them maybe for the meat as cannibalization was not unheard of in those times in those very harsh winters.

Meanwhile the women and a baby left at home are having to deal with the Bank's henchmen who are about to evict them and reclaim land for the bank. Oh, oh! Did the bankers trick the brothers into leaving? You decide.

Sometimes in the beginning when the brothers talked to each other, it was difficult to understand what they were saying as they came down with the mumbles. That got better later on. I thought Samuel's name was Daniel because when Wyatt goes looking for him later on in some huge cave, he kept calling out what sounded like: Daniel? Daniel? Daniel? Well that is what it sounded like. Okay, I will get my ears checked. Pretty sure it was…….. Daniel. Pretty sure...........

I don't recall the music (Ears again?), and it was the scenery that kept me going. There are some scenes that were tough to watch during the fighting and tortures. I had the FF button at the ready. Make sure you do too.

Over all this is a movie you can pass on and miss nothing. But if you like to see a lot of snow all the time, and like watching people lumber along in it, this is for you.

Oh, the fighting was done mostly with knives. Hey, they had guns why didn't they use them? No one knows.

This was a western, but it wasn't that good a one. It is watchable though. (5/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes, but not too much.

A felled log?

[hitchcockthelegend · 4/10 · 13 August 2017]

The Timber is directed by Anthony O'Brien and O'Brien co-writes the screenplay with Steve Allrich and Colin Ossiander. It stars James Ransome, Josh Peck and William Gaunt. Music is by Tim Borquez and cinematography by Phil Parmet.

Two brothers set off on a mission through the snowy wilderness...

The Timber is one of those films that's baffling yet intriguing. One only has to look at some amateur review sites to see that it's reviled and adored in equal measure. Depending on what side of the fence you sit, it's either a misunderstood (and under appreciated) art house Western venture, or a badly edited and incomprehensible mess.

The two brothers played by Ransome and Peck are on a mission to capture their estranged father (Gaunt) who has gone psycho after his Yukon gold well has run dry. This point of reference is not instantly apparent and is quite frankly vague and almost lost in the surreal mix. Upon their journey they encounter problems and weird characters, all this while they also contend with the ghosts of their pasts (for all we know they might actually be ghosts anyway!). The narrative is choppy, punctured by irritatingly long periods of pointless silence, and there seems to be gaps where something else should be formed, thus giving the impression that it was filmed on the fly with mucho improv.

Of course it could well be the intention of the makers was to deliberately make a nightmare/dreamy Apocalypse Now style Oater, and that many of us just don't get it? Or it really is a case of ideas above their station? What isn't in doubt is that it's magnificently photographed, a snowy Western filmed on location in the Carpathian Mountains is a thing to cherish, whilst it is undoubtedly a fascinating production, but conversely it's almost impossible to recommend with confidence. Roll the dice and take your chance... 4/10

Frustratingly incomprehensible...presumptuously pretentious

[Lary9 · 3/10 · 10 July 2015]

Frustratingly incomprehensible. Meh. I don't know why young directors like long, pretentious pauses between phrases in the dialogue. Even more puzzling is why actors of the cell phone & video generation mumble & slur their lines inaudibly with affected Brando- like breathiness. Why is it de rigueur these days to shoot quick unexpected of camera cut sequences of puzzling esoteric views that resemble a Georgia O'Keeffe landscape? After 30 minutes of this kind of desultory visual rambling, one grows catatonic relative to what trickiness will come next...the eyes widen and pinwheel...the mind numbs & wanders off... But it's all damn irritating for those of us who actually expected a good tale, well-told. (All these sophomoric devices seemingly serve to cover up the lack of a good script and the absence of a worthwhile story.) This soporific "western" resembles a film school project more than a work meant for human consumption. Presumptuously pretentious, "The Timber" fails at almost every level that I've come to expect of film, except the yawn quotient.

Disjunctive and lacking meaning

[Zaphod_not · 2/10 · 4 November 2016]

In many ways I found this similar Christopher Smith's "Black Death". A good setting but a confusing finished film (and not in a positive Kafkaesque sense!). This may have been driven by a limited budget, but poor editing is also a likely factor.

Realism was lacking with little/no explanation for the behaviour of key characters. Everyone seems hostile to the two brothers, but without due reason. The enemies were just "baddies" (all straight up mad or bad with no depth of character) making the whole film unbelievable.

The edit (not aided by the dream sequences) made it feel like a set of 10 minute clips stuck together.

I like a good western... but this is one to skip over.

Worst movie in years

[perryway · 1/10 · 21 April 2016]

I can't stress enough how awful this movie was. I watch on average about 5 movies a week and this one was the worst in years! A very confusing movie that likes to gloss over any kind of connecting bits that might explain itself. I found preparing my tax returns for 2015 to be far more entertaining that this POS movie. Did they actually pay the director and editor and producer? Sheesh! It's like worse than a student production in film school. If you like yawning and falling asleep while watching movies I've got better ones than this one. This one deserves to be thrown in the trash. Maybe the DVD might better be used as a Frisbee.

The slowest film of the year so far.

[rprince-832-6294 · 5/10 · 22 March 2015]

-The Timber (2015) movie review: -The Timber is an indie flick that takes place in the North-west during the eighteen-hundreds. It follows two brothers who are sent to collect a dangerous bounty in exchange for keeping their family's home.

-This should have been, and could have been, really good. Unfortunately, it was not so.

-The story was unique, but the film had so much trouble focusing on the actual story instead of little side-stories all throughout.

-The pace was the worth thing about it, because it was excruciating. Nothing happens for most of the film. And when stuff actually happens, the editing is really bad, so yeah. It feels very unsatisfactory.

-The acting is fine. It stars James Ransone and Josh Peck, who I thought did a good job, but not a great job.

-The main characters are worth rooting for, but there is not much to anyone else in the film.

-I don't remember the music that much, but it was slow.

-There were some cool sequences in the film. Some good effects and a few gun fights I enjoyed.

-Even with a few cool moments and other elements that are not too bad, the pace of this movie just kills the entertainment factor. Unfortunately, The Timber is not really worth the time.

-It has some violence throughout, so probably R, but I do not remember much else in the film. I could be wrong, but I was not really paying attention too much. Because I was bored.

Wow, that was bad

[tfstantonucdavisedu · 1/10 · 18 December 2015]

I'm in awe, this movie is so pretentious yet falls down the avalanche of cliché until it finally crashes and burns.

What is good about this movie? Well, the actors are trying with what they are given, and the shots are executed at a marginal level.

The story has been seen a million times over. The story was written to be in the same vain as the room, but with tired themes of the darkness of the world from Apocalypse Now set in the Alaskan wilds. Sounds interesting..... It would be if the script worked and if pacing existed, but no. About the actors, those poor guys! They had to work with a script that would have been better written by the high school drama department, and give clichéd lines to push along a plot that failed to execute itself, even though we have seen it a million times in other films.

Stay away from the timbers, It isn't even so Bad that its good.

Disappointing!

[PaulDVernon · 5/10 · 15 December 2016]

The photography was wonderful and this must have been a difficult film to film for cast and crew in all that snow and ice. But unfortunately for me it was all rather a big disappointment. This is a real shame as there are not enough westerns being made at this time, but this one just did not hit the mark. It was original for sure in its location but rather lost its way. Sorry! For westerns to survive they have to be original and have a good mix of action and dialogue. After all youngsters seem to prefer programmes and films like Game of Thrones. Westworld has captured the imagination of a lot of people and has a lot of fans due to its style and content. Refreshing, to say the least!

Not your Typical Western, but a very good one.

[subxerogravity · 6/10 · 20 December 2015]

There are a lot of movies coming out that give reflection on the financial crisis that we are going through right now, but nothing does it as uniquely as the Timber. Quentin Tarantino, once said you can always tell the state of American society by the western that comes out in that period, and the Timber is true to this statement.

Two brothers are threaten by foreclosure of their land and the lost their livelihood if they can't track down their father. The Timber acts as a testament on what you need to do in order to survive during hard times.

With Josh Peck playing an unlikely western star. It was his performance most of all the brings it home as he struggles through the wild west completely out of his element, in order to find a way to provide for his wife and young son.

The music seem out of place as well yet fit into the atmosphere and set the tone of the Timber

I'm sure things like this were common in the wild west, but what a perfect time for The Timber to come out. It's the most out of the ordinary western I've seen and that's what makes a brilliant one.

Pretentious clichés combined with rambling irrelevances

[Greg_Deane · 2/10 · 21 June 2015]

Though the two brothers are on their way to kill their father they don't seem to suffer any angst over their task. The banker's reason for wanting them out of the way-to claim the oil on their farm-seems to be an afterthought that provides some sense to the plot. The gunslinger who accompanies them proves both ineffective and pointless. The father could be any of three people and an explosion that provides the brothers an opportunity to escape some uncertain but horrible fate is more serendipity than explicable.

The story seems to be about nature and the wilderness which belittles the conflict between petty humans, though ultimately it seems as if nature is about to reward the morally superior humans, though there doesn't seem to be anything morally superior about them. All they did was mouth platitudes that their antagonists didn't mouth.

I'm glad this film wasn't any longer.

Excellent worth while watching

[edunican · 8/10 · 23 April 2015]

Very different than the norm, normally wouldn't do westerns, or made for video movies. This is probably worth a watch. It shows that a modern day perspective on bankers may not really be too short of what happened in the past but without the violence and the guns and that its easy enough to be shoved into an uncomfortable corner or a place you wouldn't want to be. there's survival in the winter wild outback, the journey, the cold and the hunger too there's also survival in the home, the family and a new born. foreclosure happens in many ways and for many reasons Even in the simplest of these situations lives and relationships are destroyed forever

Entertaining western; great cinematography, but poorly edited

[johnathindozer · 6/10 · 5 March 2015]

This movie was pretty interesting and well-shot in some very scenic, snow-covered mountain locations; however, some of the scenes were a little too vague and unclear as to what actually happened. Perhaps the director wanted to "challenge" the audience in an artistic manner...or maybe the producer told the director to cut the time of the film by about thirty minutes; whatever the reason, the end result was a lot of scenes that didn't really make sense. There was a scene in a cave where it looked like someone got killed...but I'm not really sure who or why. There were several scenes that stopped just before the action started, only to show the aftermath later on, leaving the viewer to piece together what had happened. Overall, I still liked the film; it had a talented cast and an interesting plot.

Worst Western of 2015

[jamesdavisphd-47608 · 1/10 · 13 April 2017]

I love, love, love a good western movie and The Timber was a huge disappointment. It was so bad that I couldn't finish the film. Easily the worst western of 2015 and perhaps the worst of the 2010s.

On a good note, The Timber has decent cinematography and acting. It was the script that made the movie unbearable.

mediocre survival concepts for Yukon winters

[thorbart-240-510089 · 15 February 2015]

I can only give it a 5 out of 10 for the silly preparation ideas of traveling into deep snow areas of the Yukon. Didn't see much eating and too much drinking for cold winter travel. also for ... The flashbacks or forward hallucination scenes are confusing at best. .... This movie really lacks character building. They try to resolve this shortcoming in the last 10 min. not very successfully though. Nice looking young people if that's your thing. Also, there are some nice winter mountain scenes. Still, it was not my cup of tea. well I see a problem with layout of this review not letting a reasonable spacing of ideas and forcing me to ramble on to create 10 lines that just sort of mush into each other ... Now I know why I don't bother checking the reviews in this site ... I was really just trying to rate a movie that at this time has no rating ... and ... I am only giving it a 5 or 2½ stars depending on your format.

A story that's muddled by attempts to extend it's length

[tantry1 · 4/10 · 14 December 2015]

This ~73 minute movie (not counting the opening and closing credits) has a fair few scenes and characters that seem irrelevant to the plot and the characters are all very simple and have basically no internal conflicts. They throw in coincidences, mysticism and events to simply pad the running time.

The core plot of the movie is a banker trying to get two brothers off their land by tricking them into paying their debt/mortgage by collecting a bounty when it's just a ruse to evict them unfairly because the land is valuable. That plot takes up maybe 10 minutes.

The movie gets bogged down heavily in unnecessary side plots and issues, all of which are amazing coincidences and none of which seem important to the plot.

There's a father no-one seems to care about positively or negatively that they just kill at the end, a soldier who burns some screen time doing very little and then dies, possibly- psychic dreams, a cannibal wild man and random attackers all seem inconsequential.

The only consequence of all that stuff is they seem to be trying to deliver the deep message of the film: random people you don't know are bastards. It's all in these convoluted coincidence driven scenes that I think are meant to be kismet to teach this one brother that really obscure lesson.

Not a western at all

[jimsbaddog · 5/10 · 19 May 2020]

Does anyone in this day and age know the difference between what we all call a Western and what should be called a movie about early settler days? This movie was not written, produced or directed as a western. Its simply a movie that depicted how tough life was for our ancestors when they tried to spread out about this great country. There was very little in the way pf law and order in some areas while others that were more densely populated enjoyed what we call law and order. All in all I thought it was a terrific show but I agree it was a little slow and you could start to lose interest, but just then something unexpected would happen and life went on with some major change. If people would read this review first they would more fully understand the meaning of the movie and better enjoy it. I am not claiming to be a movie critic nor an expert at all, just someone who enjoys a good movie and good acting. Thanks to you all.

A Confusing Mess

[ritb · 1/10 · 10 June 2020]

Managed to get about 2/3 of the way through this movie but had to quit because my head was starting to hurt. Could not tell flashbacks from current story line and characters would appear and do strange things that didn't seem to relate to the plot, Kept hoping it would get better but it didn't and I'm too old to spend another 30 minutes finishing this movie to see if how it ends.

Better than I thought it might be

[wwalsh-88011 · 6/10 · 25 December 2016]

Though it does not always offer a coherent narrative, I guess it works as what it is--a Western. The stars offer good performances within the narrow range the story allows. The story has some unexpected thrills and has an unhinged quality. It's beautifully filmed. Having spent some time in the Yukon when I was young, I was surprised to find out it was filmed in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. In the end, there is nothing too remarkable, and the plot has too many loose ends that I suspect are the result of working with some capable actors in bit parts, wanting to do more with them. I feel like it could have been improved with some thought and care and that it would have been worthwhile.

A surprisingly smart western

[Gosomeplacenow · 9/10 · 1 March 2015]

This film took me by surprise. I expected a standard shoot-em-up with no deeper plots or motives as seems to be the norm these days. However The Timber is an exciting, dramatic, and thoughtful adventure movie. By the end you care deeply about these two brothers and their survival. Added to this are two female supporting characters who were very well written, and actually get into the action as well, unlike the majority of films where the women are portrayed as weak, helpless things who can do nothing but wait at home until the danger has passed. How refreshing this was! This is a thinking man's (woman's) adventure movie. Other viewers can move along to the plentiful shallow action films.

Just awesome!!!

[marifislam · 8/10 · 12 March 2016]

Bravo. Really good in every way. Intelligent. Restores my faith in American movie making. The director & writer have done a good job. All of the actors seemed like they were chosen for their potential contribution rather than box-office appeal, and they were very good. I think it is better than All the Adventure-western movie. How could it have been better? I think slightly more development of some characters where you felt a bit more personal investment in them, and where you believed even more that they were personally affected by the unfolding events. In a way, it restores your faith in what quality investigative movie can produce. This is my movie of the year so far.

Powerful movie..

[ahfan-59326 · 9/10 · 12 March 2016]

This is an another great western movie by Anthony O'Brien. I bought the DVD on the day of it's release. This is definitely one of the more better western films I've seen as of late. This movie is based on western-adventure story. Steve Allrich, Anthony O'Brien written this story very well. The story was interesting. The women beating the men in their lives at their own game. One thing I would suggest to improve that some actress acting were looking little bit wired, It might be improve. But I don't think it will disappoint either. Unless you hate drama, action, humor, violence, there is no way you can hate this movie! Well done Anthony O'Brien!

Well Written.

[sabir-smaa · 8/10 · 12 March 2016]

Surprisingly well made and written. Anthony O'Brien is really a good Director. He always takes the script serious. The movie only has like 2 jumpy scenes and your on the edge the whole time because you never can figure out whats going on which is great. The Timber completely exceeded my expectations. A fantastic Adventure film that keeps its focus on the wild west and western life. This movie is really a very good movie. This is definitely Anthony O'Brien's most accomplished and satisfying film to date. The direction, cinematography and score are all impressive here and the film is visually gorgeous. Hope everyone will enjoy it.

A work of brilliance!

[gkmr2 · 9/10 · 14 March 2016]

The Timber is a very good film about western drama-adventure life of two brothers. This an intense experience with exciting-heartbreaking moments. Based on powerful choices and regrettable decisions. Actors James Ransone, Elisa Lasowski, Mark Caven really know how to represent their character developments around the nature of this film. The director did a very excellent job! The story was awesome too. A great example of how life is not black and white. As far as films that were overlooked for the best films are concerned, this one tops the list. Brilliantly written, extremely well-acted, and incredibly raw and true, this film is a work of brilliance in the art of film. I love this movie. :)

Arguably my favorite film!

[marifmahmud · 10/10 · 12 March 2016]

The Timber is one of the fantastic movie. This movie is based on Adventure and western life related. But Not only adventure, showed the toughest side of the life, how's that critical. As usual Anthony O'Brien done the great directions. He seriously focused on his script and that's honestly very good. This film is a combination of Western, Drama and Adventure. So all these combination made the movie more better and enjoyable! This movie manages to highlight the current craziness of the reality we live in. It's worth the time and the money. I thoroughly enjoyed the sarcasm above all else. This is exactly how I tend to walk through life. I'd recommend seeing it at least once.

Quite Accurate

[clayandersonjohnson · 9/10 · 13 May 2021]

In spite of bad reviews from those who did not understand the context this is a very good film. It is well acted and directed, has a great musical score, and the plot line probably is fairly truthful for the period.

The Gold Rush did not attract the best and brightest. It attracted lower class indigents willing to do anything to escape their desperate situations at home. This movie hits the mark with the number who must have gone mad from the combination of isolation, frustration, and greed.