Review of McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) by Indi V — 23 Jul 2015

Two good performances from Warren Beatty and Julie Christie help immensely, but aren't enough to make up for every shortcoming.

The film tells the tale of a small frontier town in Washington state in the early 1900s. McCabe (Beatty) basically runs the town and Mrs. Miller (Christie) becomes a business partner for him until some corporate heavyweights come to town looking to buy Beatty out.

As mentioned earlier, Beatty and Christie are both very good. Beatty's got that slick used car salesman air about him that really helps sell that this guy, who bites off more than he can chew, really could become the man about town. Christie is more the voice of reason, pointing out the obvious that Beatty either can't see or refuses to. Christie is always genuine in her performance, always making us feel that she does care for Beatty and is legitimately concerned for him.

So if the two leads are stellar, why is the film kinda meh? Well... it's slow, painfully slow. Robert Altman was famous for letting the actors surprise him while filming and often incorporating things that aren't in the script. With this one, he probably should have just stuck to the script. The slow pace is really the death blow for this film. It's a shame, really. The landscapes are breathtakingly beautiful, especially the shots in wintertime.