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September 16, 2007
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Andrew Domnik's new film is as lengthy and declarative as its title. Not content to be poetic, it aims squarely for Poetry and imbues its simple sonnet of a story with the heft of an ancient song.
And by and large it works, and works beautifully, running through a gamut of contrasts - mythic and intimate, grandiose yet delicate - and binding them with a deep sense of melancholy. Dominik's hand is as affected as it is effective, and there's a portentious deliberation to the film that makes it heavier than the work of the directors whose influence is most evident on screen (Malick, Paul Thomas Anderson), but it's a weight which is nonetheless deeply felt. "I look at my red hands and my mean face, and I wonder about this man who's gone so wrong," says Jesse James, speaking with precisely the poetry that John McCabe wanted to believe he had within him.
The way Brad Pitt spits those words brought him a well-deserved recent Best Actor award in Venice. The work of Casey Affleck as the other titular character is similarly grand, and their fateful pirouette is well played. But in the weeks since seeing the film, I've thought back most often to the scenes before the focus is narrowed, when neither Jesse James nor Robert Howard are on screen and the film concerns itself with the exploits of other members of the James game as they spend weeks and months in hiding in various safehouses across the South. There's a point to these sequences, but I loved how the narrative meanders on its way to making it, stretching out the in-betweens that most films would have covered in a simple crossfade. I also loved that they so prominently feature Paul Schneider, who in the past few years appeared in a handful of films not directed by David Green but has never had the chance outside those pictures to really let loose with his smoldering, tactful insouciance (his All The Real Girls co-star Zooey Deschanel is also present, in a beautifully rendered scene towards the end of the picture).
Less successful are cameos from James Carville and Nick Cave (who composed the score with Warren Ellis, tying this film to the other best Western in recent memory, The Propostion), who, quality of performance aside, hardly register as more than winks; and Dominik's penchant for obfuscating the lens of history with a literal smear of vaseline is the sort of precious touch that will be a red flag for any critic sensitive to pretension. Indeed, this is a film full of pretensions; it just so happens that it's substantive enough to back them up, and wrought with enough grace and vigor to make them linger.
Posted by David Lowery at September 16, 2007 12:53 PM
Comments
so excited to see this..
Posted by: brad at September 16, 2007 10:15 AM
Finally read yours. Sorry for the delay, if there was some tacit agreement to "exchange" readings. You ever think about this whole blog etiquette thing? ...In any event, I like what you say here. And while I felt bolstered by Manohla Dargis' trepidation (in one of her best-written reviews ever) I have residual doubts about my strong adverse reaction. It's not often a film gets me riled up like that (I found myself enjoying parts of _The Kingdom_ despite its silly-bad motives) so I feel like I have to check my experience of the object a little harder. But when you're writing on a silly-bad deadline it's hard -- and easier to make mistakes. I don't think I'll be revisiting the film in the theatres for a big ten bucks but perhaps somebody will rent it down the line and I will change my mind.
Posted by: Ryland Walker Knight at October 8, 2007 11:24 AM
Blog etiquette...I'm sure there is some, but don't worry, no agreement was made tacit by my musings on your review. If comments were compliments, my feelings would be constantly hurt!
If a film gets you riled up, I think that's a sign of a worthwhile picture (if not necessarily a good one). I have residual doubts about my positive reaction, but regardless, there's something about the film that makes it stick. I'll hopefully see it again soon.
Posted by: Ghostboy at October 9, 2007 01:41 AM