Director Edward Zwick and screenwriter Susan Shilliday struggle to interpret Jim Harrison's tale of brotherhood, passion, and wanderlust.

Rating: 1/10 (25 April 2006)

In typical Hollywood fashion, this film appropriates the basic premise and cast of characters from an outstanding piece of literature, then twists and mangles it into something so far removed from the sensibilities of the original work so as to be nearly unrecognizable. Jim Harrison's lush, flawed characters are turned into primitive movie archetypes and the complexity of the story dumbed-down so heavily that it may as well have been a made-for- television film. More an excuse to show Brad Pitt's glowing mane bouncing behind him as he rides horseback than a challenging exploration of the instincts and motivations of men, this piece of ready-made blockbuster tripe falls flat on its face as it follows Harrison's trail of machismo and consequence, then abandons Harrison completely to follow the well-traveled path of generic melodrama and safe predictability. Unlike it's parent-work, this film feels not like the product of a woodsy American man challenged and inspired by masculine impulse and the weight of history, but rather a soft California milksop longing to identify with the cavemen and cowboys of his dreams.