Dir. Tommy Lee Jones, US/France, 2005, 121 mins, some subtitles
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Barry pepper, Julio Cedillo, Dwight Youkam
Review by Joyce Dundas
The film marks Tommy Lee Jones’ theatrical debut as director and the latest script from Guillermo Arriaga, writer of Amores Perros and 21 Grams, so it elicits high expectations before the credits even roll. Audiences won’t be disappointed.
A heavily emotional piece, with sometimes scathingly bitter comic moments, the film is confidently directed by Jones. He also delivers an understated performance in the lead role of Pete Perkins, perfectly creating a character suffering alienation from the world around him. His only links to reality are his world-weary lover, who actually seems to be everyone in town’s lover, and his best friend Melquiades Estrada (Cedillo), a Mexican illegal immigrant. When the latter is shot, Pete loses whatever thin grip he had on reality and takes Estrada’s killer on one of the most bizarre and brutal road trips ever put on film.
Estrada had made his friend promise to return him to his village in Mexico for burial if he were to die first, so Pete decides to make good the promise. He kidnaps Barry Pepper’s border patrolman, Mike Norton, forces him to dig Estrada up and heads for Mexico with a hastily drawn map and vague directions.
However, what he finds when he gets there only confirms his deep-seated alienation and leaves him feeling no closer to a meaning in life. In fact, if anything, it feeds Pete’s confusion and calls into question whether the one thing that seemed to be sincere, his friendship with Estrada, might have been just another cruel sham.
Jones has been vocal about his desire that the film be released with its full title, reflecting the fact that it was Pete’s wish for his friend not to be treated like some anonymous Mexican. Optimum are honouring that request and releasing the film in the UK in its full tongue-twisting glory.
This being an Arriaga script, the three burials are much more than a scriptwriter’s three-act conceit. Each one marks a significant turning point for one, if not more than one, of the characters.
Norton’s hasty initial burial of the body changes his life irrevocably. The way Estrada’s body is then dumped into an unmarked grave by the authorities is a catalyst for Pete’s grief-fuelled anger and subsequent actions. And the final burial, which should represent closure for Pete, just serves to leave him more lost than ever, it also leaves Norton quite literally lost.
The performances from the two male leads throughout the film are suitably ntense, with Pepper in particular taking a thoroughly dislikeable character and turning him into more than just a shallow villain. He also must have sustained some genuine bruises from the incredibly realistic beatings dealt out by Jones. It was Jones, however, who won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005 with Arriaga taking the writing prize for the script written specifically for Jones.
As the overwhelming message of the movie is that of alienation, all of the supporting actors convey that message and their struggle to find a significant place in society very well. From Dwight Yoakam’s hapless police officer to January Jones as Norton’s sad, bored young wife, the performances coaxed out of all the actors by Jones are all top notch.
The film also has a strong moral messages and opens up some deep existential questions, but doesn’t get bogged down or belabour the points. The film looks great, contains some poignant and humorous scenes and its 120-minute running time seems just about right.
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