The Dead Don't Hurt

Last night I went to the Broadway to see The Dead Don't Hurt and, even though I was really looking forward to it, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this deliberate and character-driven Western.  Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) is a fiercely independent French Canadian living in San Francisco during the 1860s.  She was traumatized as a child by the death of her father who went to war against the English and never returned and this fuels a recurring fantasy about a knight in armor.  She believes that she has found him when she meets a Danish immigrant named Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen) and she agrees to travel with him to his homestead on the edge of a small town in Nevada.  They begin a life together but, at the outbreak of the Civil War, Holger makes the fateful decision to enlist and fight for the Union which leaves Vivienne to fend for herself against the corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller (Danny Huston), the powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt), and his violent son Weston Jeffries (Solly McLeod).  When Holger returns from war, he and Vivienne must both make peace with the consequences of his actions but he eventually does become the knight in armor she imagined.  The story is nonlinear and very measured (some might say slow) but I appreciated the time that is taken to establish the relationship between Vivienne and Holger, mainly through scenes without dialogue, and her backstory, through flashbacks, because this informs the action in the third act.  It does feature the traditional gunfight in a saloon that Westerns are known for (there are a few scenes of violence but the most egregious act is implied rather than shown) but the bittersweet romance was more compelling to me that the story of revenge.  Krieps and Mortensen (who also directed and wrote both the screenplay and the score) give brilliant performances that are highly nuanced and believable plus they have a lot of chemistry.  The cinematography is beautiful and I loved the symbolism of an unfinished barn.  Fans of more traditional Westerns might find this boring but I loved it.

Note:  The knight that appears in Vivienne's visions carries a sword that fans of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King will recognize!