Slow, meditative, uncompromising and beautifully composed, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is not a film for the timid. Writer/director Andrew Dominik’s (Chopper) adaptation of Ron Hansen’s acclaimed novel is long, sometimes ponderous, many times sensational and altogether fascinating, and even if the individual pieces don’t add up to quite as much as I would have liked them to the film itself is still a fascinating cinematic journey ranking as one of the year’s more unique experiences.

Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck in Warner Bros.' The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

With all of that in consideration, I fully expect this picture to bomb with general audiences. While I would rather otherwise, genre films challenging people’s attention spans and their intelligence seldom work to mass success. Even with a star as notable as Brad Pitt in the title roll, this drama is certainly not an easy sit. Few guns are fired, violence (while brutal and harsh), is minimal and action is pretty much nonexistent. This is movie about human interiors, about the ticking time bomb buried deep within the soul that wants to go off but seldom – to a person’s ultimate benefit – does.

Unfortunately we live in a world where the latest Adam Sandler brain-dead comedy is a smash hit while sensational thrillers like Zodiac, splendid fantasies like Stardust and challenging elegiac Westerns like this one die a horrific box office death. Films like these spur conversation, engage the senses on countless levels and spark the imagination to soaring in ways completely unfathomable, and the fact people seem to avoid them like the plague can’t help but make me horribly sad.

What makes this one so hard for audiences is that, to many, the darn thing isn’t going to be seen as going anywhere. Obviously inspired by the works of Terrence Mallick, Robert Altman and, to a lesser extent, John Ford, Dominik paints pictures with his camera (brilliantly photographed by the great Roger Deakins) the likes of which boggle the mind, the sepia toned musings of a 34-year-old Jesse James (Pitt) and his 20-year-old admirer Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) as stripped and bare-boned as they come.

For me, this is sublime poetry. Pitt’s performance grows in majesty as things progress, while Affleck is absolutely mesmerizing as the fame-hungry Ford. In fact, coupled with his magnificent work in older brother Ben’s sensational Gone Baby Gone the kid is definitely starting to prove himself as being a talent to keep an eye on. Watching Ford transform from a star-struck fan to a murderously jealous threat is wondrous, the building resentment of his idol swirling inside the young man showcased superbly in every one of Affleck’s crooked smiles, sideways glances and blushing shrugs of uncomforting embarrassment.

Yet the film does amble horribly at times. Moments here are more Heaven’s Gate then Days of Heaven, long asides focusing on side characters like Wood Hite (Jeremy Renner), Dick Liddil (Paul Schneider) and Ed Miller (Garret Dillahunt) doing little to push the narrative in any sort of meaningful direction. The fractious relationship between Jesse and his brother Frank (Sam Shepard) is also given frustratingly short shrift, while the outlaw’s picturesque family life with wife Zee (Mary-Louise Parker) isn’t given the weight it probably deserves.

Still, looking back I almost can’t imagine the film any differently. Dominik weaves an intoxicating spell, the picture slowly enveloping me like a hauntingly familiar fog of emotional despair. There is a willowed pain to everything that’s viscerally palpable, Hugh Ross’ PBS-style narration giving proceedings an air of collegiate authority that’s more than a bit surreal. The final images are as potent and as poignant as anything I’ve seen this year, the movie’s fade to black forcing me to stay planted almost catatonically in my seat long after the credits had ended. 

I can’t say I loved it all the way through. Parts of Dominik’s epic infuriated me, others just left me twisting someplace lost outside in the cold. But taken as a whole the film is pretty darn hard to shake, and by the time all is said and done The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a meditative marvel I can’t wait to see again.

Film Rating:  êêê (out of 4)

Additional Links:

-  The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Theatrical Trailer