Claim, The

Greed, regret, love and a grim reach for redemption are transplanted from Thomas Hardy’s 19th-century novel The Mayor of Casterbridge into the 1867 Sierra Nevada gold mining settlement of Kingdom Come in this engrossing but static drama from director Michael Winterbottom (Welcome to Sarajevo). Peter Mullan plays a prospector turned businessman whose past catches up to him just as a railroad surveying party determines his town’s future. The film’s snowy landscapes and dense tone bring to mind Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller, but this rather unfocused Western can’t quite conjure up its predecessor’s truly haunting spirit. The cast includes American Beauty's Wes Bentley, Nastassja Kinski and Sarah Polley.