The Homesman is a 2014 Western historical drama film set in the 1850s Midwest and directed by Tommy Lee Jones.

The film stars Jones and Hilary Swank and also features Meryl Streep, Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto, Hailee Steinfeld, John Lithgow, Jesse Plemons, and James Spader.

The Homesman competed for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival[5] and got a North American limited release on November 14, 2014, by Roadside Attractions.

Arabella Sours has lost three children to diphtheria, and Gro Svendsen, a Danish immigrant in an abusive marriage, breaks down after her mother dies.

Reverend Dowd calls upon one of their husbands to escort the women east to Lady's Aid Society Methodist Church in Hebron, Iowa, which cares for the mentally ill. Theoline's husband Vester refuses to participate in the lottery to decide who will escort the women; Cuddy takes his place, and the lot falls on her.

While preparing for the trip, Cuddy encounters George Briggs, a claim jumper, who has been left on horseback with a noose around his neck for stealing Bob Giffen's land in his absence.

The proprietor, Irishman Aloysius Duffy, says they have no rooms available as a group of 16 investors are expected shortly, and the women would sour the establishment.

He then boards the open-decked river ferry heading back west, where he sings a rowdy song with two musicians on deck.

Eventually, one of the bargemen kicks Mary Bee's wooden grave marker off the edge of the deck into the river; unnoticed by Briggs, it floats away.

[12][13][1][14] The Homesman received mostly positive reviews from critics, with particulars standing out being Swank's performance, the cinematography, score, and costumes.

The site's consensus: "A squarely traditional yet somewhat progressive Western, The Homesman adds another absorbing entry to Tommy Lee Jones' directorial résumé".

[16] Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Swank and Jones, in particular, are a very good odd couple, playing saint and sinner, sometimes reversing the roles.

[17] Andrew O'Hehir of Salon wrote: "Swank gives a magnificent performance as a woman whose calm and capable exterior cannot completely conceal her worsening desperation.

In its unsentimental poetry, its stripped-down imagery and its unforgettable lead performances, 'The Homesman' is a ruthless Western classic ... cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s harsh, horizontal landscapes—like the haunting, unsettling score by Marco Beltrami—are anything but picturesque and reassuring, and serve to support a strikingly bleak portrait of life on the 19th-century American frontier".

[18] In contrast, Claudia Puig of USA Today wrote: "Set on the Great Plains in the mid-1800s, 'The Homesman' aims for a story that's poignant and told sparely, but comes across as mawkish, tedious and self-indulgent.