Review of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) by Peter N — 01 Oct 2012

Call it art, call it tragic, call it haunting. I call it boring. The film itself is as long as its title, and while at times it was painful to sit through, the endearing performances delivered by Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck manage to make this film much better than it should be.

Fortunately, they take up a lot of screen time, giving this film a lot of cool points to make up for the fact that nothing relevant seems to be going on for 85% of it. It's hard not to hate on it a little bit, but don't get me wrong.

I still thought it was pretty good and there are some epic scenes thrown in there. It's also an enlightening period piece that, while obviously fabricated to a certain extent, provides a lot of insight into the complex persona of Jesse James.

Not even close to my favorite Western, but it's still alright.