Hello and welcome to our Day 2 coverage of TIFF ’07! Today I saw two of the bigger films on this year’s schedule, The Brave One and “that one with the long title”, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Needless to say, Jodie Foster and Brad Pitt are two of the best in the business so I knew I was in for a treat. While both gave terrific performances, I had to give the edge to Jodie in the acting department, and as you’ll see, the films aren’t even in the same league.
The Brave One
Seeing as our Head Honcho reviewed The Brave One just last week, and I am in total agreement with Josh’s Review, I’ll keep this one short and sweet. My favorite aspects of Neil Jordan’s film were the realism of the script, story and of course, Jodie Foster. I have no problem saying Foster may very well win an Oscar for this role, and I would be absolutely shocked and appalled if she failed to receive a nomination. She was amazing to watch as she transformed Erica from giddy lover to traumatized victim, and then further still to chilling vigilante. Foster portrays each of these stages with astounding reality and her character represents the unsettling notion of what a potential tragedy could do to each one of us. Not to be outdone in the acting department is Terrance Howard, who is superb as the detective that becomes increasingly intertwined with Erica and her case, while remaining hot on the trail of the vigilante. As the bodies pile up, Detective Mercer finally begins to suspect Erica, and in testing her he is slowly pulled further into the moral grey area that she thrives upon. Violent, emotional and utterly uncompromising, The Brave One is a superb action thriller with the acting, writing and depth of a drama. In his introduction to the film Jordan claimed, “It shouldn’t give you any answers, but I’ll ask a lot of questions.” Well Neil was right, and they are the type of questions that can only be truly answered when faced with brutal tragedy because until then, how can we really know what stranger lurks beneath the surface, ready to pounce on the dormant fear within.
4.5/5 Stars
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
At two hours and forty minutes The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is at least forty-five minutes too long, and in my mind a seriously squandered opportunity. The film certainly flashes moments of brilliance, most often through Brad Pitt and his inspired portrayal of the outlaw Jesse James, but in the end it is all for not. Pitt perfectly captures the rough and reckless persona of a killer, while at the same time managing to convey the charismatic inner child that endears him to the very people he terrorizes. This dual nature of Jesse James should have provided the basis for an engaging drama about his ultimate demise, but that is just not the case.
Instead of surrounding Pitt with meaningful characters, a heart-felt story and confident direction, Andrew Dominik laces his film with tired and pointless dialogue, uncomfortable pauses and needless plotlines. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a lengthy movie if the added time is effectively well spent; the flip side being that it is extremely annoying to watch a film whose director obviously could not decide what to cut. It’s common for a movie to under develop characters, but I did not think it possible to overdevelop characters until I saw Jesse James.
The adventure begins with the James brothers (Pitt and Sam Shephard) planning their final train robbery. Since all of their normal crew is dead or in jail, they enlist the help of a local group of petty thieves. Included in this group is the star struck Robert Ford (Casey Affleck), who idolizes Jesse James to the brink of obsession and wishes nothing more than to become his permanent sidekick. Affleck is decent in his role as he stammers his way through conversations with Pitt’s Jesse, and does his job in evoking pity from the audience. Following the heist, the outlaws disperse and enter into a confusing cycle of back stabbing murders, trips home for Jesse and “drop in” dinners that eventually lead us precisely nowhere. Bob Ford alternates between hating and loving his favorite outlaw, while Jesse himself is consumed by the fear that looms around every corner. After following this excruciatingly boring course for a painful ninety minutes, we finally meander to the conclusion that anybody who simply reads the title already knows: Robert Ford assassinates Jesse James. Go Figure.
Sam Shephard is in the movie for little over five minutes, and serves no other purpose than to prove Jesse James had a brother. Paul Schneider, Sam Rockwell and Jeremy Renner phone it in as the other three outlaws who are needlessly developed ad nauseam, and aside from Rockwell who played a minor role, they serve hardly any purpose. Even worse is the script, which only magnifies the absurdity of the characters and the discussions they have. And finally, the last straw for me was Dominik’s choice to paint the past with a blurred, out of focus camera, and voice over narration that goes with it. Both of these complaints may seem nitpicky, but take my word for it, by the end of Jesse James you’ll probably be doing some of your own hypercriticizing. I really wanted to like the film and I tried hard to enjoy it, but in the end it is a far cry from either description.
2/5 Stars
Tomorrow’s Schedule:
Saturday September 8th
Rendition - 09:00am
Michael Clayton - 12:00pm
Mongol - 03:00pm
