The year is 1870. Civil War veteran Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks) is a news-reader, a nascent member of the broadcast news media, traveling from town to town with a stack of newspapers in his valise, looking to keep American abreast of current events at a dime a head. Not unlike John Wayne’s journeys in John Ford’s The Searchers or Henry Hathaway’s True Grit (with a little of Truffaut’s The Wild Child thrown in for good measure), Kidd’s journey involves the task of escorting a young girl (Helena Zengel), kidnapped and held captive by the Kiowa, back to what may or may not be her home. She’s been gone so long that Kiowa has become her native tongue, a move that forces our reader to do double-duty as the film’s narrator. Given the star’s general avoidance of dark, potentially uncomfortable material, it felt strange in these surroundings to introduce the concept of evil-doers trying to kidnap the child for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The rest is pretty much what one might expect of a vehicle starring America’s favorite movie star: good performances, solid production values, and more than a touch of stodginess. Directed by Paul Greengrass and co-starring Mare Winningham, Elizabeth Marvel (living up to her last name), and Thomas Francis Murphy in a role once reserved for John McIntire (2020) — Scott Marks