The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

There should be some sort of rule that movies with foregone conclusions aren't allowed to run past the two hour mark. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford drags for over two and a half.

When just from your title and setup your audience already knows the who (Robert Ford), the what (kills Jesse James), the when (somewhere towards the end of the movie because that'd be more dramatic), and the how (probably with a gun considering the time period and the fact that these guys were train robbers) - all you have left is the why, and even that is partially answered (because he's a coward). The challenge is to fill in the details and the rest of that "why" in a gripping manner for the rest of the film. And that's where this film fails. It's no small undertaking but anyone would be hard pressed to sustain tension with this story for two and a half hours.

It's too bad because it is such a striking film visually. Grain shines in the sunlight and sways in the wind. The sky is full of appropriately threatening and tumultuous-looking clouds. The train lights fall on Brad Pitt's Jesse James creating a perfect silhouette before a moment of action. The men disappear through the steam like ghosts. The cast is an array of familiar and vaguely-familiar faces (Brad Pitt, Mary Louise Parker, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel, Jeremy Renner, Paul Schneider). They all do a fine enough job but everything is too subdued for anyone to shine through like the aforementioned grain.

Rating: 2/5

Recommended for: lulling yourself to sleep

The Hurt Locker (2009)

Within the first ten minutes of The Hurt Locker you know you're watching a wonderfully crafted film. You may think from the poster and the critics' quotes that pepper the advertisements that it's going to be an ultra-violent, non-stop adventure. But it's not. The nerve-wrecking, explosive episodes are delicately balanced with moments of quiet and reflection. It's so well thought out. And with fantastic cinematography, there is so much to see.

With her trusty team of handheld cameras and a psuedo-documentary style director Kathryn Bigelow provides a realistic (although I have no idea at how accurate) look at three men's approaches to modern war. She doesn't give us action heroes. She gives us regular men who specialize in certain activities just doing their job. Each time this Explosive Ordnance Disposal team goes out to do that there's an element that makes it different from the last even though it's essentially the same job. And each time has it's own tension, despite the monotony that also exists in their task being never-ending. The main actors (Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty) flow along with this balance. Their lines are brief but they show you everything they're thinking and feeling.

The whole film is definitely show more than tell. Bigelow presents a story and in doing so raises questions and lets you take what you want from the film. The most poignant question seems to be how do men and women live in those tense conditions eventually come back to their regular lives back home? How do they reconcile those two lives?

If this doesn't at least get the Oscars for cinematography and directing, I'll be disappointed.

Rating: 5/5
Recommended for: its real feel and suspense appeal