Slow West

In this stylishly sardonic western, a young Scottish greenhorn (Kodi Smit-McPhee) plunges into the American West circa 1870 in search of Rose Ross, the love of his life. He teams up with a lone gunman (Michael Fassbender) but does not learn until much later that his newfound protector is a bounty hunter hoping to collect rewards on Rose and her father. A sad, sudden death awaits many of the film’s characters, but the trail of doom in this brusquely ironic Wild West adventure is lined with offbeat characters and episodes that are both casual and startling: a desperate settler trying to rob a trading post; a genial anthropologist musing on Christianity’s destructive effects on Native Americans; three stranded Congolese musicians speaking French with the greenhorn; the bounty hunter facing challenges from a swaggering rival (Ben Mendelsohn); a final showdown that is by turns epic, tragic, lyrical, absurd. Writer-director John Maclean’s feature film debut—which picked up the World Grand Jury Prize for drama at Sundance—is quick (84 minutes) and quick-witted. The film’s spectacular versions of Western landscapes were filmed on location in New Zealand. Pageant Theatre. Rated R