Getting to the train on time

Rating: 5/10 (25 March 2015)

3:10 to Yuma remake wants to be a rip roaring anti western but with a dubious morality.
Dan Evans (Christian Bale) a dirt poor farmer being hounded by his wealthy neighbour helps to transport murderer Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to court by putting him on the via the 3:10 train to Yuma. He really can do with the money.
Getting Wade to the station is far from easy as his gang now led by Charlie Prince (Ben Foster) are in hot pursuit and will stop at nothing to get Wade back. Meanwhile Wade is working on his captors by playing mind games with a mixture of easy charm and roguish humour. However he and his gang have brutally gunned down people in order to rob them, something that is difficult to forget.
The film has a strange way of moralising. The honest to goodness farmer Evans has nothing to show for living a righteous and honourable life. Even his children seem embarrassed by him. Its Wade who comes off as more heroic yet he is a killer.
The standout performance is by Ben Foster as Wade's sidekick who really kicks as Prince, hell bent in getting Wade back. Its disappointing to note that Foster's career never took off.
There is a nice cameo from Peter Fonda as a grizzled Pinkerton agent. I presume his casting is also a nod to the counterculture elements of this western.
The film is well acted and largely enjoyable despite huge plot holes. Fonda's character quickly recovers after being shot in the gut. Wade decides to fall for Evans sob story and go against his loyal gang for some reason. Its this kind of flaws in the screenplay that lets the film down making the film kind of half baked.