You might think that title’s a joke. Many Westerns are slow. Is this the first in a series of parodies, soon to feature “Loud Comedy” and “Stupid Action”?
No. Of course not. “Slow West” is a mood piece, patient and paced to the rhythms of movement across terrain. It’s not a big movie. At 79 minutes, it’s in firing distance of dipping below feature length, streamlined like the semi-comparable “Blue Ruin.” But hell if it doesn’t accumulate into something tragic and tender.
The year is 1870. The place, somewhere in the Colorado territory. Sixteen-year-old Jay (Kodi Smit-McPhee of “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”) has traveled from Scotland to find his love, Rose (Caren Pistorius), even though she told him he’s “the little brother I never had.” But you know how teenage hearts can be. Still, Jay, tall and thin and about as defenseless as a tree, isn’t exactly intimidating anyone on his trek. Silas (Michael Fassbender, great in everything) sees this immediately and charges the young man for his chaperoning services. Together they travel, not necessarily on the same side. A $2,000 bounty exists for Rose and her father, dead or alive. Silas knows this, as does his deadly former colleague (an underused Ben Mendelsohn of “Bloodline”). Jay does not.
The feature writing/directing debut for John Maclean (who I suspect will avoid his few easy choices next time around), “Slow West” gives style a good name. That applies to dialogue like Silas calling Jay (in slightly overdone voiceover), “a jackrabbit in a den of wolves, fortunate to be alive” or a traveler who tells Jay, “In a short time, this will be a long time ago.” (Another one from Silas that I don’t want to leave out: “Wearing a dress don’t make her a lady.”) It’s evident in countless striking images, including mushrooms that seem massive but aren’t; a clothesline held between two horses on the go; and an arrow that would pierce Jay’s forehead had he not shot his hand in front of his face at the last moment. And it’s in the glimpse at a lawless time of suspicion and desperation, which doesn’t mean that everyone is soulless. There’s also a fantastic mid-movie sequence, about a man who desires a wanted poster and almost dies as a result, that would make a great two-minute short.
A measured movie like “Slow West” will tempt you to fade away. Do so and you’ll miss a lot that won’t soon be forgotten.
3 stars (out of four)
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