‘Surrounded’ Review: Letitia Wright Impresses in an Overbaked Western

Moses Washington, who goes by Mo, is a former Buffalo Soldier and freed slave looking for to make a brand new life within the post-Civil-War Wild West. Mo can also be a girl disguising herself as a person; she’s performed by Letitia Wright.

When Colorado-bound Mo is relegated to the again of a stagecoach, one anticipates “Surrounded,” directed by Anthony Mandler, may play as a rollicking, racially enlightened style variant. Alas, the commonplace writing, together with performers whose concept of enjoying “western” appears to derive from some fairly dangerous motion pictures, renders the proceedings lower than compelling. When ‌a band of outlaws overtakes the stagecoach, Brett Gelman, as a whisky peddler, acknowledges one and observes, in a ridiculous faux-British accent, “You’re Tommy Walsh.” Augusta Allen-Jones, because the coach’s inventory snooty older feminine, asks, “Tommy Walsh, the bank robber?” Sure sufficient, it’s.

Tommy is performed by ‌a convincing Jamie Bell. He’s captured after the stagecoach itself sees a calamitous finish. Some survivors go off to get assist whereas Mo is left to look at over‌ the chained-up felony.

Aside from being a infamous financial institution robber, Tommy is a onetime Union soldier and a person of some perspicacity, detecting instantly that Mo is just not a person (the viewers has identified this all alongside). Soon Mo and the dangerous man head off into various picturesque landscapes, and encounter various nemeses, probably the most energized performed by Michael Ok. Williams in one among his final roles.

Wright’s lean, lengthy face is typically all arduous angles, and she or he enacts the largely stoic mien of her character with weight. If “Surrounded” had carried by its overdetermined premise extra assuredly, she’d have made a compelling hero/heroine right here.

Surrounded
Rated R for language and violence. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. Rent or purchase on most main platforms.