Director : Andrew Dominik
Genre : Western
Released : September 2007
Starring : Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck
My Rating : 4 out of 10
I decided to watch this movie based on the curious title, the cast and the true story on which it is based. Sadly, this turned out to be a long movie (with a long title) - a whole 160 minutes - that feels way longer than even that. I thought I was watching it for like 5 hours.
First the good news. Great acting by Casey Affleck. Really superb. Very nice cinematography. Last 30 minutes are well scripted. That's about it.
Bad news is plenty. Brad Pitt is not a bad actor, but he is badly cast as Jesse James. Completely unbelievable portrayal. A large number of unnecessary scenes. And they are slower than snail. You will learn almost nothing about Jesse James. There is zero tension in scenes that should have been tense. It's hard to care either way about any character except Robert Ford (Casey Affleck).
And the movie takes itself way too seriously. It's absurdly pretentious.
There really isn't much of a synopsis to write about.
I don't mind watching long slow movies at all. But there has to be enough return on investing so much time. Not here.
Had this movie been cut down by half to 80 minutes, I might have a given a tentative recommendation based on the camera work and Casey Affleck's acting. As it stands, you are better off not watching this one.
Just wanted to bring to your notice that Brad Pitt actually won the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival for this film. IMHO, it also happens to be his best work ever. I entreat you to watch the movie again, for I too wasn't much impressed when I had watched the first time around ... here's the link to my review:
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