A very small indie Western but after weeks of big budget, blockbuster bloat it may be the exact right time for a subtle but interesting period piece.
What Works: Kodi Smit McPhee plays a Scottish nobleman trying to find his lost love Rose in tough, Wild West America. He receives “help” from Michael Fassbender’s ambiguous cowboy who is really after the reward that has been placed on Rose and her father. The bigger problem is that several other bounty hunters are after Rose as well, including the great Ben Mendelsohn as the leader of Fassbender’s former posse.
Fassbender is great in what is really an underwritten role, and his scenes with Mendelsohn crackle with so much tension that it makes you wish there were more of them. And the violence expertly tows the line between comedic and jolting, feeling both unexpected and inevitable.
What Doesn’t: McPhee’s lead character is one that seems ridiculously clueless to survival in this harsh environment, and is a little bit too much of a baby duck in this den of wolves. Plus, the film is a mere 84 minutes but too much of it is taken up with meandering pacing or indie-film quirkiness instead of fleshing out Fassbender’s cowboy or Mendelsohn’s villain or their intriguing sounding backstory.
What I Would Have Done Differently: This is the rare film that could easily be 15 minutes longer and with some fleshing out of the characters–the central set-up of leading an unknown predator towards your beloved doesn’t carry as much tension as it should–this could really be something for the ages.