The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007, USA)

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is possibly the most beautifully photographed film I've seen from last year, despite the occasional stylistic pretensions. Roger Deakins' cinematography here exceeds his work in No Country for Old Men (both of which he was nominated for, though he ended up being beaten by Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood, a worthy choice), as it extends its creativity beyond the other, more stripped-down film. It's a beautiful achievement, and Assassination is worth watching for the photography alone.

The film is a challenge. It's long, ponderous, and occasionally gets a bit lost in itself. But the mood of longing and regret is pervasive, as is the fascination the film has with the cult of fame. Near the end of the nineteenth century, the Ford brothers, Robert (Casey Affleck) and Charlie (Sam Rockwell), meet up with the outlaw Jesse James (Brad Pitt) to help the James Gang pull off its final train robbery. Robert tries to insinuate himself with his childhood hero, but James is spooked by his adoration, and Affleck milks this sentiment in a performance that begins by being entirely creepy and ends on a baldly sympathetic note. As we follow Ford through his strange relationship with James, we see his developing disillusionment with a man who grows more unstable with each passing week. Pitt's performance isn't really a focal point here - he's serviceable, but nothing special, particularly when measured against Affleck. My feeling about Pitt as an actor has long been that he revolves around two poles, manic and laconic, and he has trouble reaching any part of the spectrum in between. James' psychosis suits Pitt's abilities well, but he has difficulty investing the character with much beyond this affectation - by the end, I'm not sure we know much more than Robert Ford did about what made Jesse James tick.


Note - If you ever want to be really annoying, and god knows why you would, but . . . . it's super-fun to talk to people about this movie by using its full title. Like, "Hey, there was this thing in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" . . . or "I was thinking about The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" . . . Trust me.