While a police officer in New Orleans, the events of Hurricane Katrina convince Sandra to move with her mother to a remote and cold region of Montana, where she becomes a university professor. Once her mother dies, Sandra is left alone between the power dynamics of her college and the town. But it is a confrontation with two hunters trespassing on her property that ultimately pushes her own pain and growing anger to their limits. Limits where individual freedom and legal recourse meet American justice.
God's Country grossed $493,679 in the United States.[2][3]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 82 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Led by an outstanding Thandiwe Newton, God's Country rewards patient viewers with a slow-burning but ultimately explosive story of inexorable conflict."[7]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 77 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[8]
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com said, "It's a film that understands both form and content, merging the two in a story that feels less like a piece of suspenseful entertainment and more like a warning."[9] Dennis Harvey of Variety said, "God's Country (the title of which hints at another running theme of faith and doubt) is admirable for avoiding caricature within conflict, and granting dramatic personae the depth to hesitate before giving in to their angriest first impulses."[6]
