The Idea Blog

This review in EW makes the film I saw last night seem much better than I thought it was:

“This masterful Western by New Zealand filmmaker Andrew Dominik (Chopper), based on the 1983 book by Ron Hansen, dips into the genre-bending influences of wild-card Westerns from the late ’60s and ’70s like Bonnie and Clyde and Days of Heaven for its elegiacally fatalistic tone. Yet the picture emerges with something very much plaguing the 21st century on its mind — a cool acceptance of lethal paranoia as the natural state brought on by the weight of too much legend building and the warp of too much unrequited fandom. The charismatic, bank-robbing, gunslinging James, after all, was shot in the back by a puny would-be tagalong who claimed to be the gang leader’s biggest fan, and this is one rueful recounting of how it all went down. Stories about the loneliness of celebrity and the dangers of firearms rarely get starker or more mesmerizing than that.”

It almost makes me want to watch again. “Almost.” I found the film plodding in pace, gratuitous in its imagery and wasteful of the talents of Mary Louise Parker and Sam Shepard. A star turn for Brad Pitt (and he’s good, yes; almost as good as in Snatch) and a coming out opportunity for Casey Affleck.

Did I get it wrong? Have you seen and did you like this film?