Sweetwater (2013)  

Review: written May 2014

No Actions Without Consequences

I didn't have high expectations, with yet another straight to DVD Western coming along. The cast of eminently watchable actors (Ed Harris, Jason Isaac) persuaded me though, and I'm glad I was. This is a thoroughly surprising movie, never a pure Western and often pushing genre boundaries. But after a slow start, it really works, thanks in large part to an intermittently witty script and of course the performances.

January Jones plays a woman who endures a tragic loss, which tips her over the edge to drastic action against the source of her tragedy - the self proclaimed Prophet Josiah, played by Jason Isaacs. His delusional, dangerous preacher is also responsible for another couple of murders, which brings an eccentric (to put it mildly) sheriff (Ed Harris) to come investigating. Harris is great value, genuinely unnerving in his eccentricity, skirting the line of cartoonishness while never going over it, and never letting it blunt the characters hard edge. You feel some sympathy when Isaacs tells him `You're a really queer man', to which the sheriff replies "Unusual. I prefer unusual.". However for me it is Jason Isaacs who steals the show with his portrayal of a character who could easily have been a wafer thin characterization, but becomes fully fleshed out and endlessly watchable in Isaacs’ hands. All of these means that the core of the movie - January Jones revenge driven widow, taking matters into her own hands, never quite draws us in as it should - we are more voyeurs to her story than engaged in understanding or debating her motives and actions.

Beyond the characters, the cinematography belies its straight to DVD origins - as perhaps expected, with Brad Shield on lensing duties (Moulin Rouge, Star Wars Episode 2, The Avengers). The scenery in New Mexico is immaculately shot, and the direction by Logan Miller although slow to start, works well in creating a movie with its own distinctive hotch-potch of genre styles.

All in all, I liked this - nothing new in the story, but it's executed well (no pun intended) and Harris and Isaacs make it a cult classic in my book - not up there with Open Range or Seraphim Falls but a solid 6/10.

p.s. - this has also been marketed under the title "Sweet Vengeance" in the UK.