Kevin Costner's come over all cowboy again with Open Range, and this time he's bought into the myth hook, line and battered Stetson. Charley Waite (Costner), hidden past written on troubled brow, drives cattle for Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall), whose melancholic air hints at his own deeply buried torment. Trouble comes from evil rancher Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon), who's determined to divest Boss of cows and crew. And when two of their own are attacked, Charley and Boss tool up and prepare to do what men gotta do. This is a peculiarly unfashionable film - a Western that steadfastly refuses to bow to revisionism and instead views the Wild West through rose-tinted nostalgia. If the gunslinging is exciting, there's little else to get your chaps in a chaff over: the score and the script are dire. Annette Bening is notable as the good woman waiting for a horseman to ride by and it's hard, as ever, to fault Duvall. But Costner's sentimental streak sours the project. A cowboy buying china and rescuing puppies? Sissy, I call it.
Open Range
Cert: cert12A
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