Partners in paranoia...

Rating: 10/10 (22 March 2008)

An unusually thoughtful meditation on murder, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD BOB FORD cleverly sidesteps most of the gun play that made the James-Younger gang so (in)famous and focuses instead on the cult of personality and the debilitating power of paranoia. While Brad Pitt as the cobra-calm eye of the storm more than holds his own, the nail-biting performances by both Casey Affleck and Sam Rockwell give this one an edge-of-your-seat tension that is, for the most part, unrelieved. Their paranoia, ratcheted slowly to the nth degree, results finally in the foregone conclusion (see the title)- but doesn't stop there. The film follows through (as did the far more stylized TOMBSTONE, several years ago) on the aftermath of the gun play. Though there's very little in the way of actual gun play, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES is yet another notable notch on Hollywood's figurative six-shooter.