A soulful, character-driven western.

Rating: 9/10 (4 March 2008)

Wowthis movie is a true work of art. The main story was rather straightforward, but the characterization, the intensely poetic visuals, the soulful score and the brilliant direction made it one of the most hauntingly unique cinematic experiences I've ever had.
First of all, the performances were all top-notch. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck obviously dominated the screen most of the time, but quite a few secondary actors (Sam Rockwell, for instance) stood out as well. Casey Affleck's performance was widely acclaimed, and I was very impressed with him as well but personally I thought that Brad Pitt stole the show, especially in the last hour of the movie. The character of Jesse James was just as complex and layered as Robert Ford, and Pitt pulled off this multi-faceted personality very nicely in my opinion. It's a real shame he wasn't nominated for the Oscars.
Another major victim of an Oscar snub was Roger Deakins. I had liked his work in The Shawshank Redemption and Fargo (it had been one of the few redeeming features of the latter), but this time he really outdid himself. His style was strongly reminiscent of the cinematography in Terrence Malick's films, with the wonderful landscapes and the most interesting camera angles. Moreover the visuals blended effortlessly with the background scoreevery technical aspect of this movie seemed to fit right in place.
As far as the actual assassination of Jesse James is concerned, I thought it was brilliantly portrayed. The fact that the title itself was throwing such a huge spoiler at the audience even before they had seen the movie, must have made it very tough for the director/screenwriter to maintain the significance of that particular scene. However, the spoiler was very cleverly used by Andrew Dominik to provide some strong dramatic irony to the plot, and this made the assassination scene all the more impactful.
There are quite a few more themes and interesting aspects that I noticed in the movie (e.g. the possible homosexual tension, the whole "novel-like" atmosphere) but no matter how much I write about it, it would all amount to a single fact  that I loved every minute of this film. As of now, it is definitely my favourite of the year.
My Final Rating: 9/10.