The style immediately made me think of 'Place Beyond the Pines' or 'Winter's Bone.' There is no dialogue for the first while of the film and the audience is left wonder what exactly the story is about. We get a sense of unease because we see the protagonist holding a gun, and at one point covers the gun in a sheet. The first decisive action we see is the man shooting a dog, which comes as a shock with the sudden sound. We hear a voice off screen, who we presume to be the protagonist. We discover that it is when we see him talking over the phone to his daughter, Janice. The film makes use of 'flashbacks' which are made obvious by a different style of camera and colour tone. In other scenes the protagonist is nostalgically having memories of his loved ones, who appear as if part of the action without having a different aesthetic.The mood is one of isolation and solitude, reflected by the lonely and bleak landscape. There is minimal dialogue or narrative, and the music is solemn and reflective. The pacing is slow and has a lot of landscape and establishing shots for each scene.
The protagonist is not opposed by any one person but his own mind and loneliness. The setting is his antagonist. The struggle he faces seems to be his reluctance to leave the home of his family, who have now all left. He has an inability to let go of the place and the memories. He is attached to the farm and its surroundings. The film at the end states, by text, that it is dedicated to America's elderly/old age farmers.
