“The World to Come,” the film adaptation of Jim Shepard‘s 2017 short story of the same name, is just as sophisticated and lovely as the author’s elegant prose. Shepard also co-authored the screenplay (with Ron Hansen), and his eloquent writing makes for a lovely film about two women longing for intimacy in the 1800s. In upstate New York, Abigail (Katherine Waterston) is devastated by grief when her only child dies at the age of four. She does what she can to take care of the home and her farmer husband, Dyer (Casey Affleck). Between the cooking, cleaning, and milking cows, Abigail quietly p...