Review of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) by Drew S — 24 Aug 2010

This had the unfortunate timing of coming out in the same year as both No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, relegating it to "lesser arthouse" in the public conscious. And in a way, I do agree with that tag - but only partially. Really, most of The Assassination of Jesse James is lovely. The music, deep and droning, works in hypnotic tandem with Robert Elswit's light-suffused cinematography. He seems to find beauty in every landscape, forest and backyard he shoots in. Andrew Dominik, as you've probably read, is most influenced by Malick here, in his visual prioritization of nature over his human subjects. Where he could have stood to take a page out of his book is infusing his work with a little more subtlety. The movie has a provocative, unique central thesis to work with - the creation of celebrity in the Western era and how it influenced our current perception of celebrity now - but toward the end, as if it has lost confidence, it starts hitting its points harder and harder and with not much grace. I don't necessarily have a problem with the length or pacing, as most seem to, but the movie definitely loses a great deal of push after its titular act and railroads toward a thematically predictable conclusion.

I wasn't huge on the lead performances - Casey Affleck seems more content to go with semi-stupid than naive, as a basic reading of the character might have suggested (one character in the movie goes so far as to call him smart, which: hell naw). Brad Pitt is mostly cardboard and generally not the first person I'd notice in any given scene. It's an interesting treatment of the character, as a shadow lurking in the corners of the room, quietly observing and only peeking out to interact sometimes, but Pitt to me isn't an actor who's particularly great at introspection so much as loud, boisterous voice work and physicality. His two best turns, in Burn after Reading and Inglourious Basterds, are consequently two of his most colorful. Their support is uniformly great - Sam Rockwell more or less steals the show.

At the end of the day, this didn't at all deserve its failure. It's wonderful work, endearing and rich though not completely perfect. I wish Dominik was a more prolific director, because I think he exhibits some great versatility as a filmmaker and it would be exciting to see him work more often. You can't rush art, I guess.