Jumbled plot almost too dull to bear
Offering an acclaimed cast and a throwback to old westerns, “Appaloosa” moseys along and delivers a muddled plot that is less exciting than spitting into a bucket.
Ed Harris (“National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets”) and Viggo Mortensen (“Eastern Promises”) star as Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, two friends who offer protection to any town that asks for it. When Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons, “Eragon”) threatens the way of life in the small town of Appaloosa, the two are called in. With Cole as the marshal and Hitch as the deputy, justice is quickly served and order slowly returns to the town.
That is, until Ms. Allison French (Renee Zellweger, “Leatherheads”), a recently widowed, piano-playing cutie arrives in town. With Allison now in the picture, the friends begin to have a problem keeping their priorities straight.
With the start of fall comes the annual widely-released western film. Last year, gun-slinging action lovers were treated to the thrilling Russell-Crowe-and-Christian-Bale showdown “3:10 to Yuma.” This year, Hollywood tried to repeat “Yuma’s” success with a film written, directed and starred by veteran actor Harris. With so much to do, Harris forgot to add any excitement to a very typical and dry western.
Unlike “Yuma,” “Appaloosa” has only a couple of action sequences worth mentioning. In fact, there is only one old-fashioned shoot-out, which comes near the end. All other so-called action comes in the form of one man shooting and killing another man at close range.
Since action wasn’t the main theme of the film, Harris must have wanted the psychology of the old-fashioned gunslingers to be the center point. While both characters are given great amounts of time to grow, the not-so dynamic duo makes one hell of a boring character piece.
With Harris playing the quiet and intimidating marshal, Mortensen can only follow his lead and play a subdued yet wise deputy that is only good at looking threatening and providing his boss with intellectual words. It’s honestly hard to imagine how wearisome the book that this film is adapted from must have been when listening to the two’s mundane banter.
With the leads not bringing much to the table, it was up to Irons to bring the film out of its muck. While Irons has and always will be the perfect choice to play a villain, he hardly gets any time to display his menace. Out of the dreary two hours of this film, Irons is lucky to have 20 minutes of screen time.
Zellweger also attempts to brighten up this film, but fails like the rest of the cast. Looking quite unappealing, Zellweger adds only an unneeded and underdeveloped subplot. One day she arrives in town and the next, she and Harris are arguing about what kind of drapes to put in their new house. Her perky playfulness does bring a sliver of light to the film, but overall, she feels out of place.
On a positive note, “Appaloosa” does have gorgeous cinematography and not once is the phrase “Howdy, partner” spoken.
As the film comes to a close and Mortensen is seen riding off into the sunset, some people might feel content with Harris’ sophomore directing attempt, but most will probably just have to be woken up.
‘Appaloosa’
Release Date: Oct. 3 (Nationwide)
Director: Ed Harris
Starring: Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger and Jeremy Irons
Genre: Western, Action
Rating: R for some violence and language.
Grade: C
This entry was posted
on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 11:41 pm and is filed under Arts & Entertainment, Film Reviews, Vibe.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Print this post
Email this post© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
