Slow West (15)
four stars
Dir: John Maclean
With: Michael Fassbender, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Mendelsohn
Runtime: 83 minutes
DO not let the title mislead you. John Maclean's directorial debut, set in nineteenth century America, is not the kind of western that moseys along, painstakingly tipping its Stetson in the direction of everything that has come before it. While giving the genre the respect it deserves, this Scottish director has delivered a novel, inspired movie that whistles through its 83-minute running time like a bullet.
Travelling across frontiers America was an arduous, exhausting business, no doubt about it, but Maclean's movie is a breeze of a watch - thrilling, involving, a rattle along tale of how the west was won in one boy's experience.
The boy in question is young Jay (Kodi Smit-McPhee). In common with many of his countrymen and women, Jay has quit Scotland for America. Where others are seeking their fortune or their liberty, Jay has travelled across the seas in search of his first love, Rose (Caren Pistorius). Jay hails from money, Rose is an estate worker's daughter; they have no business being together in the times, but Jay is determined to find her again. So off he journeys, tea pot and a book in his suitcase.
As the contents of his bag hint, Jay is not really prepared for the trek to the mid-West that lies ahead. As luck would have it, though, he meets a bounty hunter (played by Michael Fassbender) whose trigger finger has had plenty of exercise as he has navigated his way through badlands filled with marauders, murderers, and Native Americans naturally irked at the theft of their lands. Silas offers to deliver Jay to Rose safely, for a price.
So the young innocent and the old hand set off together, ready for whatever might come their way. Though shot in Scotland and New Zealand, Maclean has nevertheless created a credible vision of America as it was at the time. His America is a place of forests and glens, the lushness giving way to bright, baked lands as the trek proceeds westwards. The forests offer shelter and food, while being out in the open leaves one vulnerable. These are men going back to basics in every sense, getting by on instinct, looking to the land for sustenance and survival.
Smit-McPhee and Fassbender make a perfect combination of innocence and experience, youth and age. But these are characters painted in shades of grey, not stark blacks and whites, as we see when they are put to the test while stopping off for provisions. This is Maclean's first big set piece in the movie, and he handles the tension and the action like an old pro. We cannot wait to see what happens next to this pair, and how they will handle it. So Maclean builds his story, one conversation and set piece following another like a hungry dog tearing after its dinner. There is a lot of humour here too, which can be a little cute and too reminiscent of the Coen brothers at times, but mostly it works, adding another layer to an already generously stuffed picture. A beguiling score by Jed Kurzel further seals the deal.
Smit-McPhee and Fassbender spark off each other like two rocks, the younger actor having a tough job on his hands to match the likes of Fassbender and Ben Mendelsohn, who appears later in the film as Jay nears journey's end, but the youngster manages it. Fassbender is his usual magnetic presence on screen. Normally one might object to an executive producer/actor hogging so much of the limelight, but not when it is Fassbender.
Between Maclean and Kahleen Crawford, in charge of casting, this is a film that can be claimed as Scottish, despite its American setting. Internationalist, ambitious, slick, aiming to entertain first and foremost, nuanced, surprising, thrilling - if only all pictures to come out of Scotland aimed the bar this high instead of going for tired miserablism or attempts at comedies that are about as funny as stepping on a nail. Movies are a business for pioneers, for risk takers, for dreamers, and Maclean is a worthy addition to the ranks.
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