The Dead Don't Hurt

Despite the fact that the plot has plenty of holes, this western just about works. It's all about the determined "Vivienne" (Vicky Krieps), very much a woman in a man's world of pioneering in the 1860s. She encounters the honest and thoughtful "Olsen" (Viggo Mortensen) and travels to his remote, and rather ramshackle, shack where they begin to make an home for themselves. He takes a job as their sheriff and she, a little to his chagrin, starts working in the saloon. He is restless, though, and with the American civil war looming large, he decides that he ought to use his Danish army training and go enlist. She's not enamoured of the idea, but off he goes and that leaves her alone and firmly in the sights of spoilt local "Weston" (the rather un-menacing Solly McLeod). When "Olsen" returns from the war quite a few years later he is presented with a few shocks! Subsequent events take an even more tragic turn, and now he must face his demons and settle accounts. This is a grand looking romantic drama that takes it's time to get going and that allows Krieps to invest strongly in the maturing elements of her character. That he would just saunter off for years and leave her alone and unprotected does beggar belief a bit, and there's no denying that does negatively impact on the plausibility of what, rather obviously, comes next. Still, there is enough meat on the bones of the story, an effectively sparing amount of dialogue and a soupçon of chemistry between the two at the top of the cast that gives some indication of just how tough and lawless life was and at how difficult it was to be decent!

The frame of this film is ingenious, beautiful landscapes and most of the score played by a string ensemble with piano. Acting is also great with the main characters saying more with their glances than a thousand words.

The negative thing is this film takes ages to get to the meat of the plot, namely when Olsen leaves Vivienne to rejoin the army consecutively showing what happens to her while he's away.

Just before that we were at the point to stand up from our seats and leave the cinema hall. Luckily I held on to my principle to watch films to the end, even if they're bad, so in the end we had an enjoyable afternoon at the cinema.

And trust me when I say I did not like saying that. I really hoped this would be something along the lines of The power of the dog, another low key, slow thoughtful western but sadly it wasn't in the same league. The characters weren't overly fleshed out, the most important part of the plot did not make a whole lot of sense. Why would you take a woman back to the remote place that you live only to leave. In the end the independent lady had to become a victim she couldn't be left alone after all, she needed a man to look after her. And finally we get to a revenge movie and even that is reached at a walk. Overall quite forgettable I am sorry to say.

The Dead Don't Hurt

Viggo Mortensen wrote and directed the Western, The Dead Don't Hurt, a story set at the onset of the Civil War. A Danish American meets a French (or Canadian, it's not really clear) American in the American frontier, and they fall for each other but choose not to marry.

Olsen's dream location is a barren piece of land that seems unsuitable for his partner, Vivienne. She makes the best of it by getting a job at the local saloon, and plants flowers and vegetables the best way she can. Olsen, however, feels this urge to go fight in the Civil War, leaving her by herself.

Like most stories of the American frontier, there was not a lot of lawful behavior. With Vivienne now alone, shenanigans ensue. In fact, we know most of the outcome during the opening scene, which I haven't decided was the right decision. But there is enough mystery that I stayed interested, though ultimately disappointed.

I had some trouble with the story as a whole. Showing patriotism for the new country that was still being settled is honorable. But abandoning a woman who begrudgingly decided to stay in a harsh environment was very pathetic. His selfishness sets forth a chain reaction that resulted in a very chaotic ending. Passion for what you love is one thing, but it's meaningless when it comes at the expense of who you love.

I'm also a bit tired of the lawlessness old West trope, even if it's an example of accuracy. Our cartoonish villain's (Weston) father is even afraid of him, along with pretty much the entire settlement. Come on, Viggo. The characterization was just sloppy, and Weston really was only there to give the most extreme of outcomes to Olsen's choice.

I disliked the very end, and I'll leave it up to my readers to see if they feel the same.

Greetings again from the darkness. It's fairly common for a film to open with a dramatic scene and then take us back for a period of time to show how the story arrived at this point. Of course, the other logical option would be to have that scene serve as the beginning of the story. What happens with this film is rare: The storytelling goes backwards AND forwards. We learn how the characters got to this point and we learn what happens after this moment. The person to thank for this is writer-director Viggo Mortensen. Highly regarded as an actor for years, Mortensen had one previous filmmaking project, FALLING (2020), which made the festival rounds.

Starring as Holger Olsen, Mortensen is a man trying to live a quiet life on the frontier in the 1860's. He spots lovely Vivienne (Vicky Krieps, excellent in PHANTOM THREAD, 2017) having a spat with her well off boyfriend, and very quickly she's drawn to Holger's flirtations. Her making the choice to leave a comfortable upper-crust life for a more challenging one with Holger, gives us a glimpse into the inner-strength and determination of this woman. Soon she is turning his dusty cabin into a home by cleaning, planting a garden, and adding touches of convenience ... such as they were 160+ years ago. And speaking of decisions, Holger makes a life-changing one when he decides to enlist to go fight in the Civil War. It's a decision she tries hard to talk him out of.

While he is soldiering, we learn much about the little town where Vivienne is stuck. A corrupt Mayor Schiller (the always smarmy Danny Huston) is in cahoots with his equally sleazy business partner Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, 2007), as they work their master plan of getting rich at the expense of others. Alfred tries his best to control his combustible son, Weston (Solly McLeod), who takes his entitlement to sometimes violent extremes against those weaker than him. Weston takes a real interest in Vivienne, and despite her best efforts, things go wrong between them.

A few years pass and Holger returns. In a brilliant bit of acting and surgical dialogue, Vivienne asks him, "How was your war?" The two work to re-establish their relationship in the wake of the changes that have occurred. When that opening scene comes back around, Holger sets off on a journey for personal revenge. In addition to the two timelines mentioned above, we also get flashbacks (sometimes via dreams) of Vivienne's childhood. By this time, we understand Vivienne and Holger very well. 'Still waters run deep' is a passage that came to mind while watching, and it should also be noted that filmmaker Mortensen and cinematographer Marcel Zyskind (DALILAND, 2022 and a frequent collaborator with Michael Winterbottom) include some wonderful shots of waterfalls, rivers, mountains, and vistas ... the breathtaking shots we appreciate from the western genre. The film deliberately moves slowly (as the times dictate) and captures the hardships of living off the land, and the struggles of separation, yet it also addresses one man's vengeance as necessary before he can move on. We find ourselves not surprised that Viggo Mortensen the talented and intelligent actor is also Viggo Mortensen the talented and intelligent filmmaker.

In theaters May 31, 2024.