Mississippi Grind, Slow West

Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn in Mississippi Grind

By chance, we've been having a Ben Mendelsohn film festival. Mississippi Grind provides a chance for him and Ryan Reynolds to show off their acting chops as gamblers looking for a big score on a road trip to New Orleans. Reynolds shows some of the magnetism that producers have seen in him. The supporting cast is fine and the music (mostly classic blues) and Southern locales provide winning notes of local color. However, the script and direction, by the team behind Half Nelson, are somewhat rote. I was reminded of California Split, but the tenor of this film seems wan compared to Altman's work. 

Somewhat better was John Maclean's Slow West, where Mendelsohn is underused as the main villain. A naïve young Scotsman is searching for his lady love in the American West. Unbeknownst to him, she has a bounty on her head. Michael Fassbender is a gunslinger willing to help the lad, but does he want to find the girl to cash in on the bounty? Fassbender plays the role well, but may be too cerebral an actor to exude the authority needed to play action leads. 

Slow West, unlike Mississippi Grind, has some genuine surprises and boosts good period detail. The tone is discursive with the narrative meandering in much the way the protagonist does. There are touches I've never encountered in a Western: a German aboriginal scholar provides one striking vignette as does a trio of Africans singing in French. Not a great film, a killing in Scotland is mishandled, but a quietly rewarding one.