epic stories need not be painfully long

Rating: 6/10 (12 June 2009)

I hope that director Dominik takes this advice. The 2 hours and 40 minutes length is the principal problem of this 'Jesse James' screen story. It is not difficult to imagine a shorter version of this film and you get a much better one.
The very good news are Casey Affleck. Dare I say he is a better actor than his elder and more famous brother? Yes, I dare. I could not identify for a long time Ben Affleck in the crowd. Casey is both resembling physically to Ben, but also has a personality that strikes at first sight. His acting as Robert Ford, the young, fascinated and treacherous killer of outlaw Jesse James is deep and emotional. He matches the much more experienced Brad Pitt, who is giving himself an outstanding performance as the charismatic and suspicious Jesse James at the end of his criminal career and life.
It is really a pity that the director having created the good acting and beautiful cinematography of the film seems to have become so much in love with his own creation that he did not want to leave out anything. What resulted is a full two hours which are becoming repetitive, a lot of characters that look and behave too much of the same just to come down under the bullets of a Jesse who understands he cannot trust anybody any longer. Surprisingly it is the last 20 minutes which avoid the film from becoming a more complete bore with the story of what happened to the killer after the assassination. The too long elegy until that point is balanced with a condensed and expressive epilogue. In most other films this post-ending would occupy just one scene of half minute. Here it saves the day
It is interesting to see a non-American director in charge with such an American film and story. Dominik brings the fresh view that takes out of routine a genre as the Western. If only he could have resisted the temptation of making the film long as an American screen saga.