The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) (nat)

Joel and I once again procrastinated about the unpacking and ran to a movie almost as soon as we were up and moving today. This one is loooooooooooooong. Two hours and forty minutes. And it feels that long (but, thankfully, not in a Kingdom of Heaven way). The movie is beautiful. Really very stunning. Casey Affleck does a good job as does Sam Rockwell and Pitt is pretty good. Mary Louise Parker is under-used as James's wife. The story is ok, not as interesting as it could be especially if you happened to have caught 15 minutes of a History Channel show that detailed the assassination (it's not as interesting when you know exactly when James is going to be shot). And it should have ended about 4 times before it did. But the film is gorgeous. Some it is fuzzy about the edges and some of it looks as if it were shot through an old piece of glass with waves in it. The color is fantastic as is the play of light and dark. But there are some strange still shots at the end that are a bit off. Like No Country (but for very very different reasons), this one is worth a watch but be prepared for a long watch that doesn't pay off as much as it should or could.