Harris-headed pic plays quick with oater idioms
One part dust, one part gristle, and one part Ed Harris, the New Line horse opera "Appaloosa" is subtly effective and subtly vainglorious. Harris and Viggo Mortensen pleasantly team as brotherly guns-for-hire, with a fondness for dopey women and warm coffee. Renee Zellweger plays a dopey woman. The resulting romp is both enjoyable and competent, but neither spectacular nor masterful. Lightly introspective and moderately relaxed, think of this as "3:15 to Yuma." B.O. has been light over the month in release so far.
I typically don't describe the plot of films I review in any detail, because readers can glean it from nearly any other review if they so desire, and furthermore, I don't think it is normally useful in making a recommendation to see a film. But "Appaloosa" demands some attention, mostly so I can make fun of it. Harris portrays some old cod fond of doing "gunwork" for money and reading American philosophy. He isn't good with words like "sequester." He gets angry at people who piss on floors or who drink too much. His name is Virgil - signal the irony alarm. Mortensen plays the same type of dude, only not impulsive and fond of eight-gauge shotguns. Some township (called "Appaloosa," if you were wondering) hires them to deal with a naughty but powerful rancher who breaks the law occasionally. He is obviously a bad guy, though he is played as a comic figure by Brit thesp Jeremy Irons with jocular flair and perhaps a jot of overacting, nevertheless delicious additions both. The Zellweger character, a bad pianist, arrives at some point and a love triangle occurs within ninety seconds. The rest of the film consists of various mix-ups and shoot-outs punctuated by light banter between the male leads.
The film works for a few reasons. The tête-à-tête between Harris and Mortensen is very digestible, and frequently funny. They have a good body language, which is just as telling as the chatter. And Zellweger, looking as near to anaphylaxis as usual, does not have a hard or insightful part, but does make a great foil for the main two players. And as mentioned, the work by Irons is delectable.
It is really most accurate to describe "Appaloosa" as some kind of a narcissistic, cinematic self-portrait of Harris. The whole film is permeated with smudges of his personality. He's the thesp headlining the pic. He co-wrote the screenplay. He directed and produced. He even wrote and crooned the Oscar®-eligible song that dawdles through the credits. But he's a smart guy, so it's a smart movie - just not genius.