If anything, 'Yuma' scores for acting
By Nick Knittel, Staff Writer
September 17, 2007 | midnight
It’s so satisfying to see the western genre quietly creep back into Hollywood after such a long and sporadic absence, and “3:10 To Yuma” proves that the cowboy is far from dead (and still not totally homoerotic). The duo of Christian Bale and Russell Crowe is a monstrous pairing of talent, and, together, they lead their stellar characters through a somewhat limp and oft-seen story of redemption.
“3:10 to Yuma,” a remake of the 1957 film of the same name and based on a short story by Elmore Leonard, tells of Ben Wade (Crowe), a ruthless outlaw and smooth-talking charmer. Ben roams the Arizona desert with his crew, among them the sweetly psychopathic Charlie Prince (Ben Foster, “Six Feet Under”). After pulling a particularly lucrative heist from the railroad company, he’s quickly apprehended by Grayson Butterfield (Dallas Roberts, “The L Word”), the railroad liaison in the nearby town of Bisbee. Butterfield, somewhat upset that Wade has hit the last 21 of his stagecoaches, forms a posse (members including Peter Fonda and the criminally underused Alan Tudyk of “Firefly”) to take the criminal on the titular train to see that justice can be served.
Dan Evans (Bale) is a one-legged, morose, dirt-poor farmer whose land is in the throes of draught. Desperate for money and eager to show his wife (Gretchen Mol, “The Notorious Betty Page”) and son (Logan Lerman, “The Number 23”) that he’s not a complete waste of space, he volunteers to join the group as they leave town. Of course, it’s easy to see where things will lead. Charlie, now the leader of the gang, is eager to shed blood over the capture, and everyone ends up learning a little something about respect and honor once the final shootout arrives outside the train station.
The real winner here is the acting. Bale plays his character strongly, bottling Dan’s shame and anger so much that there isn’t really any sign of life on his steely face, just a hardness and determination to get things done. His need for respect is what drives the transformation of Ben Wade in the finale and it’s a powerful moment, if slightly unbelievable, when all the pieces come together. It’s a subtle performance, but one that fits so snugly into Bale’s resume of reserved characters (“Batman” and “The Machinist” spring to mind) that viewers start to wonder if he’s truly capable of playing a happy character.
Crowe also scores for portraying Wade not as a roguish thug, but as a smart, self-confident (sometimes to a fault) bag of complex morals and philosophies. Wade comes from a poor background, but he’s worked his way to the top of the food chain, leading to his near-legendary status in the West. Everybody knows, however, that just because he’s big, he’s still a softie for the little guys. Dan earns his respect and Crowe allows the character of Wade to transform under these circumstances through another nuanced performance.
As good as Bale and Crowe are here, up-and-coming actor Foster completely rules the film whenever he walks onscreen. Charlie is an alarming, sociopath character, hell-bent on retrieving Wade from the clutches of the law and willing to do anything to get it done. This is such a marked evolution in performance from Foster that it’s easy to not recognize him at first. He simply disappears under the hat and folds of Charlie that everything seems completely real and natural. It’s great to see him, once again, get a role worth his talents after being completely wasted in the abysmal “X-Men 3.”
The acting, however, just isn’t a match for the rest of the film. Director James Mangold, who previously directed “Walk The Line” and “Identity,” takes a somewhat pedestrian path through the material, giving us good things, but nothing outstanding. There aren’t any standout shots, and the transformation of Wade comes off as too obvious, thus making the forward motions of it all seem redundant and hollow. The shootout in Yuma, the pinnacle of the film, especially leaves something to be desired, despite the odds against Dan and his group ratcheted so incredibly high.
In spite of these setbacks, the film makes its mark with powerful images of redemption and the characters most affected by it, showing that, sometimes, the best performances can stand far and above the material from which they are born.
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Speakeasy Rating: B+
Running Time: 1 hour, 57 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated R for violence and some language
Genre: Western