The initial TV ads for 3:10 to Yuma didn’t appeal to me at all. Sure, I saw Christian Bale’s sharp mug and the reliable Russell Crowe staring back at me, yet I still wasn’t interested in the thing. Bale is one of my favorite actors and Crowe rarely turns in a drab performance, but I surely wasn’t going to be first in line to catch a lightly-hyped remake of a ’50s Western. The movie looked like something my granddad would enjoy but would leave me shifting in my seat. Then a few critics I respect starting tossing out words like “glorious,” “riveting” and “Oscar” when describing it. Then it hit number one at the box office on its first week out. Then I finally caught it on Saturday.
3:10 to Yuma is much, much more than the slow-burn exercise in genre those TV ads made it out to be. It’s an extremely compelling and well crafted tale loaded with powerful (not showy) performances, great action and soul to spare.
Bale, one of the best actors working today, has rarely been better. As Dan Evans, a wounded and noble Arizona rancher fallen on hard times, he takes on a dangerous mission in order to feed his family and save his homestead. After Crowe’s super-criminal Ben Wade is captured in Dan’s one-horse town, Dan agrees to help a few lawmen escort Wade to a far-away train station. There, Wade will ride to his fate, which lies under the noose.
A good number of thrilling shoot ‘em ups follow, but the real meat of this movie is in the quieter moments, especially the verbal confrontations between Bale and Crowe. Dan and Wade are two fully-realized characters which Bale and Crowe perform with restraint and poise. Their exchanges provide a strong emotional context to the violence and expertly staged action scenes that follow, which makes the action incredibly rewarding to watch. Themes of duty, anxiety and nobility drive the movie. When Dan and Wade draw their guns against each other - or when they refuse to - it’s not just because they’re in a Western. They each have their deeply rooted reasons, and you want to side with both of them. The disparity between these two seemingly different characters slowly starts to disappear as the end nears, and their relationship decides the fates of everyone around them.
Along for the ride, and doing some great work, are Alyn Tudyk (”Serenity”), veteran actor Peter Fonda and Ben Foster, who plays Crowe’s creepy and obsessed right-hand man. Foster’s boyish face was put to good use as a near-mute angelic figure in “X-Men: The Last Stand.” He’s dark and quirky here as a slick and slim baddie with a beast inside. He’s scary, funny and unforgettable. Someone will cast him as the devil soon, mark my words.
“3:10 to Yuma” reminded me a lot of Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” in tone and because of the great performances. But, where the mob mystique was almost a character itself in “The Departed,” the Old West is more of a backdrop in “Yuma.” Instead of romanticizing the cowboy outlaw, “Yuma” reminded me that great stories can be told in any genre. Don’t miss it.
Review originally posted at Screen Time.