"The Claim" is a gripping, 90-minute emotional drama packed into two hours. Director Michael Winterbottom apparently is not
one to rush things, though in many instances here, it would have been better if he had. The setting is Kingdom Come, a gold rush town in 1867 California. Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan) owns the town and governs it strictly but fairly. It's a harsh, primitive place, full of whores and outlaws. It appears to be in a permanent state of winter, and not the pleasant kind you see on postcards, either. Dillon did something dreadful a long time ago, which is shown to us in a flashback without much explanation who it's a flashback of, or even that it IS a flashback. At any rate, his past comes back to haunt him in the form of two women: Elena Burn (Nastassja Kinski), who is dying, and her winsome young daughter Hope (Sarah Polley). He is currently seeing a throaty gal named Lucia (Milla Jovovich), who also seems to have some connection with the Burns.
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