Brad Pitt, a modern-day James Dean, brings a wealth of melancholy to his role of Tristan, the fulcrum for at least three of the film's major tragedies. The character's comings and goings represent the openings and closings of chapters. Even when Tristan isn't on screen, the movie is invariably about him. It takes little guessing to realize that his love affair with Susannah is central to everything that transpires. The spotlight is his.
Manipulation is a part of any melodrama, and Legends of the Fall is no exception.
In this case, however, the entertainment offered far outweighs any momentary recognition that the director is tweaking our emotions. It seems that there are perennial attempts at this sort of grand-scale motion picture, each with ambitions as big as the mountains that form the backdrop. Because it's so easy to overdo melodrama, successes are rare. Thankfully, there are few missteps in Legends of the Fall . You don't have to be a critic, or even have a critical perspective, to be entertained by this film.