Slow West

Year: 2015
Genre: Western
Director: John Maclean


Plot: A young Scottish lad travels to America to search for a woman he loves, and in the process meets a bounty hunter who agrees to be his guide.


The gist: I figured that since it won an award at the Sundance Film Festival, Slow West would be worth checking out. But I was wrong.

The film tells the story of Jay Cavendish, a young man from Scotland who travels to America to find a woman that he loves, Rose Ross. His naivety almost gets him killed when he is rescued by Silas, a bounty hunter who agrees to help him on his journey in return for some money. Along the way, the two men meet an assortment of characters, the most dangerous of them being Payne, leader of a gang Silas was once a part of.


The good: The film has some good cinematography to depict the mountains of Colorado, using New Zealand as a stand-in. Michael Fassbender is good as Silas, and Kodi Smit-McPhee is convincing as the naive Jay. There is a tense scene in a sundry shop which is probably the best part of the film.

The bad: Despite running at a short 84 minutes, I found the film really taxing to sit through. Writer-director John Maclean plods the story along without a clear direction instead of developing his characters properly to make it interesting. While keeping things as simple as possible might work for some films, it does not work here. I wanted to know more about Silas and Payne, and their past together, but instead Maclean shows flashbacks of Jay and Rose, more than once. The final shootout scene was also disappointing and unnecessarily tragic. And Jay's character just wasn't endearing on a whole, to be honest.


Verdict: Slow West had potential, but it was near totally wasted here. Maybe a lot of people like this kind of thing, but not me. (5/10)