Very Good Ending, but way too long...

Rating: 5/10 (15 November 2007)

Based on a book, the pacing may have been long, necessary and useful in the novel, but from the beginning, I felt that this movie was going nowhere following a bunch of bandits and their uneventful, uninteresting lives. If someone got caught up in the legendary tales of Jesse James like a good portion of America at the time, I certainly did not from watching the movie. Yes, Brad Pitt and director Andrew Dominik portray him as a more down-to-earth, conflicted person which is fine, yet, there is no transmission to the viewer of the type of blind admiration that Richard Ford feels for him.
The younger Affleck, Casey, plays the younger brother of the two 'side-kick wannabes' of Jesse James and his older brother. He plays the coward well and is a good counterpart to Pitt's outwardly assurance. From the title, even though it is strategically not actually shown in the beginning of the movie, we know that Ford is going to kill Jesse James. We don't know how and we don't know exactly why, although we have a strong suspicion.
Visually, there are a few great moments. Scenery. The outdoors. Horses. Houses. America at the end of the 19th century. Yet, the movie is too static, the story too uninvolving. Not having read the book, but being privy to surely to some of its passages in the voice-over narration, I have to say that I imagine that writer Ron Hansen's delightful descriptions were much more potent than even good actors in a room with regular lines and not much to do. In fact the best parts of the movie were this passages which makes me think that the book may have had additional richness not well translated in the film.
In any case, especially at close to 3 hours, this film did not work. The last half hour (the leading up and the aftermath of the assassination) were by far the best part of the movie. If that type of cunning film-making, introspection and moving storyline could have served the rest of the movie, I would be rooting too. Yet I cannot say why this film is so highly-regarded as it stands now and as I have seen it last night. Better luck next time.