Gorgeous, rich true-life portrayals

Rating: 7/10 (14 February 2008)

Although as long as its title is unwieldy, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is (apparently) true to life and is the beneficiary of a smart, uncharacteristically supporting performance by Brad Pitt as the folk-hero villain and a strong, if a bit mannered, performance by Casey Affleck as his eventual killer.
It's the latter days of the James Gang, and weary older brother Frank (Sam Shepard) is calling it quits after one last train robbery. Jesse's not so inclined, though, so he assembles a new crew of cutthroats, including the Ford brothers, Charley (Sam Rockwell) and Bob (Affleck). But all the while, Jesse is always looking over his shoulder, sure that someone's about to cut him down, perhaps even someone from his own gang. It doesn't help that he's written terroristic telegrams to governors and presidents alike, either.
The story's told through the eyes of Bob Ford, a stammering young man who strongly idolizes Jesse to the point of carrying around a shoebox of dime novels about the legendary outlaw and knowing all sorts of arcane facts about Jesse. Not surprisingly, to Jesse and the rest of the gang (including Bob's brother Charley), this seems childish and downright pathetic, and consequently they don't give the young Ford much respect.
This attitude leads to a strange mixture of resentment and continued idolatry on the part of Robert Ford. Should he continue to try to ingratiate himself with Jesse, or should he turn him in to the authorities? Turning him in might make him a hero - the one man who could fell Jesse James - but then he'd really lose whatever remaining respect Jessie had for Bob. (To Bob's thinking, he's one of Jesse's pals.) Affleck's Oscar-nominated performance is wonderful, walking the fine line between hammy and nuanced. A less-capable actor (or, perhaps, an actor less on top of his game) might have taken Bob's idiosyncrasies and run with them, played them up rather than muting them somewhat, making them feel more natural. You get the sense that although Bob is not a good man by any means, he is human in his actions and reactions; he can be a cold-blooded murderer and thief, but how he deals with each minicrisis is neither insincere nor cartoonish. It might be a testament to Affleck that he's able to make something out of the relatively dull character of Robert Ford.
Brad Pitt is simply Brad Pitt. He's come a long way since movies like Legends of the Fall and A River Runs through It; he's now a Good Actor, not just a beefcake model, and he's effectively menacing and confusing as James, who was (the movie says) going a bit off the deep end in his waning years even without having to deal with the specter of betrayal. James is sad, excitable, angry, dissonant, and Pitt is up to the task. Weirdly enough, though, although Jesse James is the nominal subject of the movie, Pitt takes a backseat to Affleck. This isn't about romanticizing the lawless West and the tough fiends who populated it; it's about dreams crushed and comeuppance delivered.
At more than two and a half hours, this is not a broad, unsubtle look at real-life events, and it's not always easy to watch. James is not only not presented positively, he's shown as a realistically diabolical criminal, not just some pretty boy with a lot of "cute" facial hair. Multilayered characterizations and sweeping, Oscar-nominated cinematography make this an effective Western.