Review of The Claim (2000) by Michael Y — 04 Jul 2011

Just one of those special period piece movies you don't here much about. The Claim is a dramatically unique western done with great style.

In the great Gold Rush days of the mid 19th Century, an Irish immigrant, Dillion, sells his wife and daughter to a man for his gold claim, and since then had become very prosperous, even raising a small town. 3 people come to the town who'll break Dillion. One is a man named Dalglish who is sent to build a railroad near his town. The other two are his dying wife and his daughter who does not know Dillion is her real father. The Claim is a very nice touch on the western genre. It's a great character drama, romantic, and very depressing. It's a good combination. We see Dillion as a powerful man with a vast fortune, but we have sympathy for him because he doesn't have what he really wants in life. Though he's rich, money can't buy him everyting. Peter Mullan does a wonderful performance, and so does Wes Bentley when things begin to heat up. The lovely Milla Jovovich plays an interesting but a little bit sad character; Dillion's Portuguese lover, Lucia, who owns the town brothel. She's another character whos wealth cannot quite get everything she wants.

The Claim is a tad bit on the melodramatic side, but it is balanced wonderfully by the directing. The style of the movie is great. It's cinematography is very cold and dark and 100% fantastic. The outdoor scenes don't have a lot of colour to them, and that really brings out the isolation and empty feel of the movie. But the inside of the pioneer houses are full of detail, but with a different, warmer colour that still doesn't make the movie any more warm or happy. The old timy costumes, dresses and sets look fantastic, fully of little details of how things were back then. Nothing fancy at all or romanticised, just the bare minimum to get a sence of how desperate such times were. And the last thing that brings this movie together is the extremely wonderful music score by Michael Nyman that truely fits the movie and brings so much emotion to the movie, right up the great climax.

It may be a little slow with a lot of drama, and it doesn't have a big named cast or big name director, but The Claim is a unique period piece movie that an interesting and well paced western that can hit the right spot when you're in the mood. Its different and stylistic take on the old west and downer of a story makes The Claim a satisfying film if you want to watch something different.