The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

While Brad Pitt gets top billing in this one the film actually belongs to Casey Affleck who is causing one fuck of a stir right now with his work in THE KILLER INSIDE ME. To date we really haven't seen Casey show his chops but he sure as hell does here and if the competition wasn't so stiff in 2008 he would have snagged an Oscar on this one. Pitt himself does some fine work here though at times you wonder if he isn't blending Early from KALIFORNIA and Jeffrey from TWELVE MONKEYS. As good as his acting is here his best is when he 's playing dead and the scenes of Jesse on death display are uncanny in their historical realism. Andrew Dominik does an excellent job directing this thinking man's Western and though I would have rather had the film narration free I can certainly understand why he chose to do so. I'd love to see the original four hour cut but most important here is JESSE JAMES shows off Dominik's style and it seems he's a perfect fit to helm the Cormac McCarthy project CITIES OF THE PLAIN. Those looking for fast Western shoot-em-up action you might want to take a pass but those who like their fare character study driven will absolutely love this one.