Review of The Claim (2000) by Alex M — 21 Jan 2004

[size=3]Michael Winterbottom's [i]The Claim [/i]is perhaps the saddest, most elegiac Western to be made since [i]McCabe & Mrs. Miller[/i]. In a film "inspired" by the works of Thomas Hardy, a man is haunted by a tragic and unforgiveable decision he made years ago. That decision, made during a night of drunkenness, was to trade his wife and newborn child for the claim to some property that might contain gold. Twenty years later, the man is rich beyond his wildest dreams, yet is still haunted by the terrible means by which he achieved that wealth. His guilt confronts him directly when his wife and daughter return to the town that he now practically owns. This personal drama runs parallel to a subplot involving the potential construction of a railway that probably holds the key to the town's economic future. [i]The Claim [/i]certainly has a sense of scope and grandeur, and its cinematography is frequently breathtaking (the scenes of the snowy West are so crisp they almost transport the viewer to this 19th century world). And there are scenes that are transcendent and unforgettable, of which none is better than the [i]Fitzcarraldo[/i]-like sequence in which a house is physically pulled from one location to another. The central performance by Peter Mullan is reserved and quiet, which eventually makes his emotional moments all the more powerful. What holds [i]The Claim [/i]back from greatness is a tone that is almost too relaxed for its source material. The subplot involving the railway surveying are rather uninvolving, and are not helped by a miscast Wes Bentley (who was so good in [i]American Beauty[/i]). The female characters, including Milla Jovovich as a prostitute and the overrated Sarah Polley as Mullan's daughter, are not very well developed either. Only Natassja Kinski as Mullan's ex-wife brings depth and dimension to her role. [i]The Claim [/i]is not quite on par with the great Westerns, but it is a rather unique blend of literary drama and cinematic beauty.[/size].

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