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The Assassination of
Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, like its title, is
beautiful in its sprawling state but, also like its title, could
have greatly benefited from being chopped in half. There isn’t
anything inherently wrong with the movie running for nearly
three hours—its cinematography, score, and performances always
engage—but the endless time-limit allows writer/director Andrew
Dominik to crowd the screen with an unholy amount of erroneous
excess. By the time The Assassination of Jesse James was
over, I couldn’t remember half of the characters that had been
introduced throughout its duration due to their sheer
insignificance. Dominik takes a great amount of liberty in
toying with unnecessary subplots which, rather than
strengthening the power of his picture, weaken its core
substantially. The only story-thread that really matters in the
film is that which follows the cat-and-mouse game played by the
title characters. (These, by the way, are brilliantly invented
by a career-best Brad Pitt and an Oscar-worthy Casey Affleck.)
The remainder of The Assassination of Jesse James exists
exclusively as fatty excess, never unpleasant but only useful to
Dominik when it allows him to indulge in his movie’s beautiful
visuals.
-Danny Baldwin,
Bucket Reviews
Review Published
on: 10.17.2007
Screened on:
10.16.2007 at the Edwards San Marcos 18 in San Marcos, CA.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the
Coward Robert Ford is rated R and runs 160 minutes.
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