When a young, Native American woman is found dead in the snow of a reservation, Cory Lambert (Jeremey Renner), a tracker for the Fish and Wildlife Service, must team up with FBI agent, Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olson) to solve the mystery of the woman’s murder.

Despite coming out during the usual box office dry spell that is the end of the summer, “Wind River” succeeds in telling a compelling and thought-provoking story while also providing fascinating insight regarding the lives and struggles of Native Americans living on reservations.

The majority of the film is told as a murder mystery and a thriller, with the two leads searching for any clues as to what happened to the woman to cause her to die in such a remote location. Renner as Lambert gives possibly his best performance yet as a man who, while familiar with the area and its people, also has tragedy in his past that compels him to want to solve the murder. Olson as Banner also gives a strong performance, as while she is out of her element for the majority of the film, she always maintains a strong sense of perseverance.

One aspect that I enjoyed about “Wind River” was that I never really knew where it was going. It creates a solid mystery, and the first two acts of the film are spent setting up and solving this mystery. However, the film really begins to shine in the third act. Several suspenseful and very well-choreographed action scenes help to create an enthralling (albeit violent) climax. Without giving anything away, the film’s ending masterfully highlights the impacts of one’s surroundings on their actions, and specifically how it affects Native Americans today. The film’s final moments ended with a statistic that really shocked me, and it gave the whole story a new weight that isn’t always obvious upon first viewing.

The only issue that I had with the film revolved around its lack of major character arcs. Both leads are affected by the journey that they go through, but Lambert in particular feels like he doesn’t change much throughout the story. He starts off knowing the area, all the people, and everything about his past, and by the end of the film, not much has changed. The character wasn’t bad by any means, but it felt as though his journey was more to enlighten the audience rather than to show character growth.

Overall, I really enjoyed “Wind River.” It’s certainly a different sort of movie, and it may not be for everyone. But personally, I found it to be a fascinating experience.

4 out of 5 Spurs.