claim

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The Claim (2000)

Director: Michael Winterbottom

Writer: Frank Cottrell Boyce

Cast: Wes Bentley, Peter Mullan, Sarah Polley, Milla Jovovich, Nastassja Kinski

Character: Burn

Billing: N/A (alphabetical)

Plot: During the gold rush in California, the town of Kingdom Come is hoping to become a city with the arrival of the railroad. However, the past of its founder, Daniel Dillon, may be catching up with him.

Review: An intriguing basis for a Western which owes more to The Sweet Hereafter than them cowboys and injuns, The Claim perhaps shows too much of its literariness for its own good. Although Dillon's ghosts of the past would make a decent film by themselves, they are largely interrupted by the love story between Bentley and Polley, or by Milla Jovovich's enterprising prostitute, and none of the stories makes much of an impact. Kingdom Come itself, from its beginnings in ice to its end in fire, is an imposing place and interesting enough, but never really forms a cohesive whole, and its lack of a community spirit means that Dillon himself is seriously undermined. The overwhelming impression is that The Claim would fair better as a mini-series than a film.

Peter Mullan is a dominating presence, but has too little screen time, whereas Wes Bentley seems (often literally) snowed under. Apart from the demise of Kingdom Come, the film's most interesting and captivating scene is in its flashback to the selling of the Claim to Dillon. The candlelit faces of the actors in the darkness create a wonderfully Faustian sense of inevitability. Tom, playing Burn, the original holder of the Claim, has about 2.5 minutes of screentime, and the film is therefore not worth watching for him alone, but the intensity of those 2.5 minutes almost puts to shame the endeavours of, in particular, Bentley. All in all a film which tries hard, sometimes gets there, and more often flounders about in the snow.

Trivia: Based on Thomas Hardy's novel The Mayor Of Casterbridge. Also starring Sarah Polley of The Sweet Hereafter and director of Don't Think Twice.