Westerns often have this fascination with going back to simpler times – when a white guy could prance around on horseback over stolen Indian land and shoot other white people who claim the stolen Indian land as their own. Ahhh those were the days.
They call them free-rangers. They take their cattle grazing about on land no one really owns anymore, drink coffee out of tin cups and spit a lot. The crew of this ship includes Charley Waite (Kevin Costner), a quiet man with a violent past, Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall), a bold and honest cowboy, and their trusty assistants Mose (Abraham Benrubi) and “Button” (Diego Luna). But when they veer too close to a town, an evil rancher (Michael Gambon) and his crooked sheriff (James Russo) pull them into violent confrontation. With the help of a few good townsfolk, particularly a horse parking attendant (Michael Jeter) and a kindly nurse (Annette Bening), our free-range fellers will stand up for what’s right and do a lot of shooting… and spitting.
This might be the most sublimely average western ever made. Without one original thought in its pretty little head, Open Range still manages to take you through the motions, tolerating cliché after cliché and ridiculous dialogue to enjoy a rather satisfying gun battle and a few nice character touches.
Costner’s quiet-man-with-a-past is the only role in which we can take him seriously for some reason (like Schwarzenegger playing a robot) and he excels at it. And even if some of his actions defy logic, Charlie Waite has some interesting yet underplayed backstory. The real star of the show, as expected, is Robert Duvall who turns Boss into a lovable quick-witted character. Michael Gambon is ridiculously over-the-top as the evil rancher, but his character seems stitched into the script anyway, serving only to throw out some threats and compete in the gun battle. Annette Bening gives another strong performance and Michael Jeter is likable in his final screen appearance.
But Open Range is lame, lame, lame. The slow boring shots of open fields serves as a reprieve from the mind-bogglingly trite and overly sentimental dialogue. Costner’s direction takes the twenty minute plot on a 145 minute journey, triggering laughs from the audience when you least want them. The climax is too long, but is a good show. The film ends long after it should, though, and the romance is flat and transparent.
It does get better as it moves along, but it starts out so candy-coated and irritating, it is only able to raise itself to being average. C
-Mmm-hmmm.
-Jeepers, I suppose we DO!