An average movie

I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but I still wanted to give it a try, especially since I enjoyed a lot Billy Bob Thornton's previous directing effort 'Sling Blade'. Indeed, before making 'Sling Blade', Billy Bob Thornton was a rather struggling actor and basically launched his career by starring in his own movie. It is a rather unusual move but it has been done by some other actors such as Gary Sinise, Sam Neill and even Vin Diesel. I must say I was really amazed by Thornton’s directing debut and I was really intrigued to see his directing follow-up. It was, this time, a much more ambitious project, a romantic Western from a book written by Cormac McCarthy ('No Country for Old Men' and 'The Road') and starring Matt Damon who was, back then, a new rising star. Unfortunately, even though Roger Ebert was really enthusiastic, calling it an 'elegiac Western', I thought it was pretty disappointing. I mean, the directing was solid, with some beautiful landscapes, and the music was really nice too but the story was rather tedious (can you believe that the original cut was 220 minutes?!?). Furthermore, even though Matt Damon is a fine actor, I thought that the Boston native was hardly convincing as a Texan cowboy. I mean, the whole thing was not bad, it definitely had some potential, but Thornton never managed to make it really spellbinding. Anyway, to conclude, even though this flick was rather disappointing, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you like the genre.

6/10