Grade: A-

Verdict: A moody, mesmerizing tale of attempted redemption, bursting with unexpected images.

Details: Starring Peter Mullan, Wes Bentley and Nastassja Kinski. Directed by Michael Winterbottom. Rated R for sexuality and some profanity and violence. 2 hours.

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Review: A horse runs flaming through snow. A newly built house appears to be walking through the trees. A town of square wooden buildings stands toylike, dwarfed by the vast whiteness of winter mountains.

These are some of the haunting, unexpected images in “The Claim,” a tale of fate and attempted redemption that relocates Thomas Hardy's “Mayor of Casterbridge” to the Sierra Nevadas during the American gold rush. Imagine the opium-dream, Old West vision of Robert Altman's “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” combined with the awe-inspiring images from Werner Herzog's films.

Director Michael Winterbottom's drama is one of the coldest-looking you'll ever see, but the austere, stark light of the freezing outdoors is contrasted with the bustling warmth of the town's interiors, like Lucia's (Milla Jovovich) bar and bordello.

Lucia's lover is Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan), the middle-aged man who — some 20 years earlier — earned the claim to the gold-rich territory, and with his wealth built this frontier town, Kingdom Come. What people don't know is that he paid a terrible price, drunkenly swapping his wife and infant daughter for the deed to the land. And now, that wife Elena (Nastassja Kinski) has come to town with grown daughter Hope (Sarah Polley), who knows nothing of this ghastly bit of bartering.

Given that setup, “The Claim” makes you think it's heading into a plot about vengeance or comeuppance, but it's got something more complex in mind. We soon see that Dillon isn't the reckless, drunken kid he was; he's a genuine penitent and reformed man who goes about doing what he can to make amends to the woman he betrayed.

Daughter Hope, meanwhile, becomes aware of attention from Dalglish (owl-eyed Wes Bentley from “American Beauty”), a surveyor for the Central Pacific Railroad who's checking out Kingdom Come as the possible site for the line's expansion. If he recommends it, that would mean an economic second coming for Kingdom Come, just as Dillon (in a thematic parallel) is trying to create a moral second chance for himself.

“The Claim” is a constantly surprising film, full of texture and the vibrant push of life even amid the harshest, snowbound conditions. It captures some of the breadth and complexity you find in a novel, full of human interconnections, small joys and quiet mysteries. But it doesn't go for easy answers. Viewers expecting the familiar emotional release they get from more formulaic movies may feel, well, left out in the cold.

In the strong, eclectic cast, Mullan (“My Name Is Joe”) is the standout, a small man with big karmic debt who becomes a genuine tragic figure. Kinski is fine as the long-missing wife, a beauty whose light is slowly fading, and Jovovich — overtaxed by ex-husband Luc Besson in his Joan of Arc film, “The Messenger” — manages to be both exotic and earthy as the enterprising madame.

The only actor who seems a little out of place is Polley, usually so fine in other films, like “The Sweet Hereafter” and “Guinevere.” Here she seems too contemporary, a bit of a lightweight. It's a minor complaint.

Possibly the most overlooked, mishandled film of 2000, “The Claim” barely opened in New York and Los Angeles in order to qualify for Oscar consideration. Now it's appearing in theaters with scarcely enough time to beat its video debut in June. Anyone interested in serious, haunting film should pay the extra few bucks and see this on the big screen. Responsible for films as diverse as “Wonderland,” “Welcome to Sarajevo,” “Jude” and “Butterfly Kiss,” Winterbottom continues to be one of the most surprising, and interesting, filmmakers now working.

— Steve Murray, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution