When everything you have is gone, how can you pick up the pieces? This is the premise of REBUILDING, Max Walker-Silverman’s gentle human drama about a rancher who loses his home and livelihood following a devastating wildfire. Living in a FEMA camp with the other displaced, he struggles to care for his daughter alongside his nearby but unaffected ex-wife: he is told he cannot get a loan with no existing belongings or buildings to leverage against, and the severity of the burn means nothing new will grow for eight to ten years. With his cattle sold and his hay crop nonexistent, Dusty is left with the grace of the local community to see him through.

Josh O’Connor, today’s favourite indie leading man, disappears into the role of Dusty in a transformation no less convincing than yet completely the opposite of his Patrick in CHALLENGERS. His hunched neck and quiet voice convey a lifetime of hard work, carrying on a family tradition unquestioned until it was suddenly and violently upended. He is matched by a strong supporting cast – including Meghann Fahy as his ex, Kali Reis as a fellow displaced local who refuses to let Dusty isolate himself, and Amy Madigan as his rock-solid former mother-in-law. Other characters are more thinly drawn, often falling into the kindly types of the Old West with no rage, only resignation, towards their fate.

In terms of craft, REBUILDING is beautiful without challenging any expectations.

Unfortunately, despite its rich and resonant premise, REBUILDING gives the viewer little to latch onto emotionally. The stilted script, also by Walker-Silverman, does not go beyond surface-level observations but thankfully the actors’ delivery finds heart and truth in even some contrived scenarios and interactions (a few almost throwaway moments ring more true than the central familial relationships). There is a simplistic idea of community at play – while tragedy often brings out the best of humanity in solidarity and unity, the worst that it also often engenders is absent. The result is a quiet, frictionless film that does not even summon much anger at the environmental, economic, and bureaucratic injustices following the fire.

In terms of craft, REBUILDING is beautiful without challenging any expectations. The cinematography by Alfonso Herrera Salcedo lingers effectively on fire-ravaged hills and former forests, and the folk-tinged score by James Ellington and Jake Xerxes Fussell celebrates the region’s traditions. Unfortunately, as with the script and performances, there is little variation in tone or level, making the 96-minute runtime feel much longer.

REBUILDING is a compassionate look at a community rocked by disaster with a wonderfully judged performance by O’Connor, though unfortunately it goes no deeper. Considering these natural events will become more and more common, and stronger, as the climate crisis intensifies, the film occupies a strange place between call to action and resignation to fate.