Review: In ‘Hollow in the Land,’ a Headstrong Woman’s Search for Answers

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Men create the messes, and women clean them up. “Hollow in the Land” is not interested in those men’s stories, but in the burden placed on a young woman whose brother and father have trashed her family’s reputation.

Set in a remote small town in Canada, “Hollow in the Land” follows Alison (Dianna Agron) as she struggles to look after her troublesome brother, Brandon (Jared Abrahamson). Their mother is long gone, and their jailbird father is still locked up. When Brandon is accused of murder, he disappears, leaving Alison alone to exonerate him.

Soon this gloomy family drama, directed and written by Scooter Corkle, transforms into a backwoods thriller littered with bodies and conspiracies.

Under the film’s color-drained cinematography, Alison looks tired and pallid as she’s harassed and chased away by locals who despise her family. She looks ready to snap from the first scene on, yet her resolve to find her brother keeps her going. The movie mirrors Alison’s desperation through dimly lit dead-end clues and hectic chase sequences through town.

Alison closely resembles Jennifer Lawrence’s character in “Winter’s Bone,” another self-sufficient young woman whose family and community turn against her. This movie is not as tense, but it gets close thanks to Ms. Agron’s resolute performance and the movie’s hostile small town setting. The world may not always be just — those who break things don’t always pick up the pieces — but headstrong women like Alison still survive.