Westerns are trotted out so rarely these days that they've sadly become default awards-bait like any other period movie, often bloated and overly self-serious. But lately we've been lucky to get some smaller, leaner Westerns, throwbacks to the days when the genre was broad enough to incorporate numerous styles. Last year's The Proposition was one, and now there's Seraphim Falls, a tough and extraordinarily effective film, at least until it pretty much falls apart in its last half-hour.
It's genre filmmaking at its most basic: There's a guy, and he's being chased by this other guy. It's 1868, and we're in the wilds of the western U.S., watching Gideon (Brosnan) as he tries to elude the relentless Carver (Neeson) and his steadily dwindling band of minions. For about an hour, that's all there is—Gideon flees, and Carver follows. They even meet a couple of times, engaging in oblique exchanges about the nature of their enmity, but it's kept vague enough that you can imagine almost any back story you like. Gideon seems kind and Carver cruel, but they've clearly both got more layers than they display outwardly.
The chase—through snow-covered forests, lush valleys and arid deserts—is brutal and unceasing, just like the West itself. "Ain't no God out here," Carver says when encountering a band of traveling missionaries, as matter-of-fact as when he talks about which direction to head after Gideon. The two Irish actors struggle with their accents a bit, but it helps that they're playing taciturn men who only speak when absolutely necessary. Mostly, they let the stunning scenery, expertly photographed by the great John Toll, handle the expressiveness.
Unfortunately, director and co-writer Von Ancken, a TV veteran, can't keep things simple, and eventually explains the animosity between the two characters in a heavy-handed flashback. Worse, he drifts into pretentious allegorical territory toward the end, with Anjelica Huston as a mystical snake-oil saleswoman peddling some heavy symbolism. Walk out of the theater just before Wes Studi pops in as Wise, Mysterious Indian, and come back for the very end, though, and you've got a near-perfect, no-fat Western.