A bad western is not that unusual I suppose. A classic genre that is full of cliche’s and archetypes, but you know that in the beginning and expect it and, hopefully, something more comes out. Ed Harris tries, but I just didn’t see it. A gunfighter who reads Emerson is ‘deep’ I guess, yet nothing else fills out the character. This is Harris’ second project as director/actor and I can tell he’s a minimalist like Eastwood. Maybe another take or two would have helped. He has a good eye and the picture looks great, while the attention to detail in costume and language is impressive. Even I might swoon over Viggo Mortensen’s character. As the loyal to a fault sidekick, he is the most complete character and you can’t help but like him. Zellwegger is annoying, as usual, and very out of place in this film. Jeremy Irons is classical in his antagonist role. He’s so bad, he’s good. There was just not enough holding it together in the end. Some interesting and wonderful vignettes and tableau’s, but not a complete movie worthy of the wealth of talent available from Harris, Mortensen and Irons.