Don't let the gregariously prejudiced (and spoiler-iffic) title throw you. Don't let the total lack of publicity throw you. Don't even let the name of Affleck on the poster throw you. Director Andrew Dominik's sophomore showpiece is a masterpiece of high tension, nuanced characters, and one of the best screenplays of '07.I knew very little about the history between Jesse James and Robert Ford - I was even, before hearing of this film, unable to name James's assassin. So in a lot of respects, the movie was a learning experience for me, a student of history. So I shirked my concern for spoilers upon reading the title but did not research further, letting the movie unfold history for me.
I suppose there isn't much in the way of plot synopsis, since the title seems to do all that for me. Casey Affleck (who looks more like a cross between Hugh Grant and Zac Efron circa Hairspray than his own dispiriting brother Ben, whose apple fell far from Casey's acting tree) does a sound job of portraying the hero-worshipping titular "coward" who slowly turns from utter idolatry to jaded enervation, while Brad Pitt is electrifyingly eerie as the waning bandit with a touch of destiny surrounding him. The other performances are negligible (in that they're by no means as dynamic as Affleck and Pitt) but by no means disposable; each fits perfectly within the era, especially Garret Dillahunt's role as the nervous Ed Miller.
The screenplay is a risky one, asking the thespians to tackle lines like "You're just like any other tyro who's prinked himself up for an escapade." The last time I heard dialogue that expertly crafted was on the short-lived David Milch drama Deadwood (sadly cancelled by the boneheads at HBO); ditto for the delivery, which flows like those liquid goodies in Canaan. Dominik has done a bang-up job adapting the eponymous novel into a first-rate screenplay, arguably the second-best of the year (after, of course, P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood, also an adaptation).
At two hours and forty minutes, the runtime of the film might intimidate a few. And for good reason - a few spots in the film drag, littered with loving long shots of desolate scenery that belong more in No Country for Old Men than they do in between the tense peaks of this film. Believe me, it gets tense, especially in a scene where Jesse James visits Ed Miller, who's heard that Jesse is wiping out the old gang, one by one. Recall the sensation you got from The Descent as you waited for the bang that you knew was coming, and amp it up when you see the absolutely spooky Pitt, who ominously leaves on his heavy black coat when he enters Miller's home.
Speaking of bangs, there's of course the big one near the end of the film. Not knowing the circumstances of Jesse James's demise, the whole of the movie felt like an intense build-up to what I expected would be a cataclysmic showdown, O.K. Corral style. But Dominik stages the much anticipated execution (and it is that, in clear gory detail) quietly, without fanfare or nobility. Instead, pure poetry plays out before us, with an air of tragedy to rival John Coffey's last walk in The Green Mile. Then Dominik does something risky - he continues the film for about twenty more minutes after James's death, reminding us that this is as much the tragedy of "the coward" Robert Ford (who, like Pancho's betrayer Lefty from the old Willie Nelson songbook, descends into ignominy faster than Amy Winehouse) as it is of Jesse James.
I'm going to have to re-evaluate my Top Ten of '07 List.
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