The Revenant

is not an easy film to watch, but it is one of the most compelling and powerful movies I've seen in a long time.  Every minute of its more than two and a half hours is both beautiful and bleak, visually stunning and bone-chillingly cold and dark.

Director and co-writer Alejandro González Iñárritu delivers a masterful depiction of a harsh frontier full of harsh people, a frontier in which both humans and nature are insanely dangerous.

Leonardo DiCaprio turns in what has to be the most powerful performance of the past year.  With minimal dialog and long, long stretches with no words at all, he nonetheless communicates his every feeling perfectly, and we understand completely his drive for revenge.  

The movie's only real weakness is its ending, because after all that Hugh Glass, DiCaprio's character, has survived, resolving his quest cannot help but be a let-down.  Even so, the end is lovely and powerful.

If you want a happy movie or a comforting one, The Revenant is definitely not for you.  Otherwise, don't miss it.