Review of In a Valley of Violence (2016) by Stuart M — 15 Jan 2017
I wanted to like this because I love Westerns and modern Westerns in particular tend to be excellent (possibly because there are so few of them). The film even starts off well, going full spaghetti western with wild music and a cowboy animation, but from that point on it fails to embrace or parody the conventions of the subgenre.
The acting is all over the place. Ethan Hawke struggles to talk and seems to be living in another world, Karen Gillen is just a kind of irritated bitch, and the guy playing Gilly (the big bad) hams it up for all its worth.
And I don't even know what John Travolta's doing. I gather he was supposed to be an oppressive lawman but he always acted so reasonable. It's not just his performance, it's in the script like that too.
I don't get it. None of their performances work together or feel like they're coming from the same movie. We all know where this film is going so the whole movie just devolves into a dull exercise in travelling from point A to point B.
This review of In a Valley of Violence (2016) was written by Stuart M on 15 Jan 2017.
In a Valley of Violence has generally received mixed reviews.
Was this review helpful?
