Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

I only ventured out into the snow and wind for approximately two blocks -- far enough to rent a movie to watch in the snuggly confines of my couch and burgandy afghan.

It would be unfair of me to speak to this movie in-depth. I fast-forwarded perhaps 97 percent of it. I would liken it to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in so far as I think both movies were meant to be character studies -- and by that, I mean rather than anything happening, the camera studies the characters for minutes at a time. Can I see a wheel turning in Brad's head through his pupil? Could be. Could be. But I can't be sure, because I hit the fast-forward button on my dvd player at those moments.

I thought this was going to be a western, man -- with gun fights and moustache-twirling and horses kicking dust up in their wake. But there was just (near as I can tell) a whole bunch of Jesse James showing up at someone's front door or sitting at someone's kitchen table, ostensibly creating suspense as to whether or not Jesse was going to punch a hole in that someone's cranium with his six-shooter ... but then the fast-forward button got hit again somehow and I can't be sure if I missed all that much. Even so, the movie lasted maybe 6.5 minutes too long (and that was on 30x fast forward, so that makes it ... well, too long in real time). If I may leave you with a piece of practical advice: if you want to see this, make it sometime where you're in the mood to sit back and spend hours absorbing cinematic atmosphere. Or be sure your fast-forward button is in working order. Verdict: Movie Rental if You Must.

No comments: