Oh, the Yumanity!

With Thanksgiving now behind us, it means crunch time for me once again with school. Knowing I won't have much free time over the next few weeks and seeing that 3:10 to Yuma was out at the budget theater right now, I made sure to squeeze in a viewing tonight. And it's a good thing I did because this thing delivered.

The movie is a winner and that is thanks in large part to the terrific acting by its two primary leads. We've known for quite some time that Russell Crowe is talented and he gives another fine performance as the murderous Ben Wade. Opposite him in Christian Bale, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors of all time. The last few films he's done have been outstanding with him doing a great job playing very different characters. Here, he's the down-on-his-luck, Dan Evans who's doing his best to provide a good living for his family.

We also get some strong performances from the supporting cast. Peter Fonda does a nice job as an aging bounty hunter. Ben Foster is all sorts of creepy and slimy as Ben's second in command. And I really enjoyed Alan Tudyk as the doctor. This is a guy who most won't recognize, but has had solid performances recently in Knocked Up, Arrested Development, Dodgeball, and voicing Sonny in I Robot.

Going back to Bale and Crowe, though, the film works because it does a wonderful job of establishing the relationship between their two characters. As they travel together to put Ben on the prison train heading toward Yuma we see how they are two sides of the same coin. Ben is a villain with a side of humanity while Dan is a hero with hints of a dark side. We learn more about each of them throught their interactions with the other.

I'm not sure what it is about westerns that brings out these themes so nicely, but they do. The ideas behind what is good or bad, black or white, are emphasized when they are placed in such a shades of grey world like the old West. We see, this fall especially, how modern political dramas attempt to achieve the same thing but failing to do so. Perhaps its because the ideas surrounding those themes are more simple in the Western genre. Or maybe its because when it comes to modern political thrillers everyone is afraid to step on somebody's toes that those themes become muddied.

While this genre works at getting these themes across, the one flaw I found in the film is associated with the genre. I personally did not feel the director did enough to give this film the look of an old western. Everything had too much of a Hollywood feel for me and at times it took me out of the film. Thankfully everytime I started thinking about it, I was drawn back in by the performances of the actors.

The film is based on a short story by Elmore Leonard, who, along with Stephen King and Philip K. Dick, is becoming one of Hollywood's go-to guys for source material when making films. It's also a remake of a 1957 film, starring Glen Ford. Based on what I know, this version seems pretty faithful to the original. One aspect that does remain the same is the ending, which I'm sure will be debated by all who see this film. Without giving anything away, I will say that the ending doesn't confuse me, but I have no doubt that others won't get it. I think because the ending isn't conventional the director could have done more with the final scenes. The finish is a little too succinct for the action it involves. There is certainly plenty of evidence throughout the film to explain why it ends in that manner, but it's not necessarily spelled out for the audience. For this reason, you're going to have a lot of people who may not care for the ending.

While there may be room for improvement on how things wrap up, it did not ruin the film for me. This is a really good film and I would have no qualms if it or the actors were nominated in the upcoming awards season. I'm not typically a Western fan, but if the films in this genre continue to be as good as this one, I may become a convert. When this one makes it out onto DVD (which probably won't happen until after the holidays), make an effort and check this one out. Grade: A-