The Other Roger is a Dream Machine Site The Dream Machine --- The Imagination of the World Wide Web

Taking place in the icy, forbidding wilderness of the Sierra Nevada, circa 1867, Donald Dalglish (Wes Bentley), a youthful land surveyor for the railroad, rides with his crew into the wild and untamed town of Kingdom Come. They have come in part for a little R & R at the local brothel, as well as to see if the land surrounding the town is worth using for the future Transcontinental Railroad. Along with the small team of surveyors, a mysterious woman named Elena Burn (Nastassja Kinski) and her young daughter, Hope (Sarah Polley, of Go) come into town, seeking the founder and leader of the village, Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan).

Dillon appears at first to be simply a gruff, yet benevolent, tyrant who runs the town with a velvet fist. He has a kind-yet-purely-sexual relationship with the town's saloon singer/brothel madam, Lucia (Milla Jovovich), as well as a sizable fortune in gold, which he gained in the California gold rush of 1849. Yet when Kinski and Polley appear, he is forced to confront painful memories from the past. It appears that, long ago in his youth, he came to California seeking gold like most people of that era, along with his young wife Elena and their daughter. Seemingly finding nothing but the snowy wasteland, he ended up in the shack of another prospector, who's land claim did contain gold. The older prospector offered to hand over his claim for the woman and her child. Without thinking very long and hard about it, he trades them and from those beginnings, Kingdom Come has sprung forth.

This decision has haunted Dillon for many years, and now he must make even harder choices than before involving his claim, as past and present converge on one another. He feels he must redeem himself in the eyes of the now ailing Elena, by marrying her (despite the fact that they are already married) and caring for Hope, who knows nothing about her mother and Dillon's past together. Yet he must also deal with Daglish, as it is important for the new railroad to come through, as he feels it shall provide more development and growth for his corner of the world.

But it seems that even ones fondest wishes don't always come true. In Elena's case, she does not want to ease Dillon's troubled mind. She is broke, and slowly dying from TB. She marries Dillon again, but only to insure that her daughter's future is not as hopeless as her own life seemingly turned out to be. Dalglish is another matter entirely. From his perspective, the area is rough and hazardous, and shows very little potential for any future railroad posts. He is also attracting the affections of both Hope and Lucia. This leads to dangerous and potentially disastrous consequences for all involved.

I've said before that this tends to ape McCabe, up to and including it's similar climax. But it's differences tend to outweigh it's similarities, in both good and bad ways. It's problems come from some of the performances being far too contemporary by at least a century-and-a-half to be convincing for the settings. Very few of the characters seemed to be naturally part of their environment. In McCabe, Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Co. seemed to grow out of the very rock and earth surrounding them. Most of the people in The Claim are simply walking cliches from previous westerns and are forgettable.

Bentley, in particular, disappointed me. I'm still unsure, after watching the movie twice, why he gave such a stilted, lifeless performance. His role as Dalglish contains little of the eerie charisma he displayed in American Beauty as Ricky Fitts. Just watch his reaction, about halfway through the film, when one of Daglish's comrades gets killed. Note the way the man gets killed. Then, you'll understand how baffling it is that he acts so nonchalant. Perhaps it was the mistake of the editor or the director for choosing that particular shot. Maybe Bentley wasn't feeling any connection with the character. All I know is it ends up distancing the audience from any attachment to Bentley's character for the rest of the movie. And he's supposed to be the star of the damn film! It's just one example among many of how Winterbottom, as the maestro, doesn't seem to know what the overall theme is or what motivates his characters.

The technical aspects are also somewhat troublesome; the sound design, which attempts to copy the overlapping dialogue of Altman's film, ends up making the lines sound muddled and unintelligible. It wasn't until the final credits rolled that I learned how Dalglish's name was spelled; the pronunciation throughout the film sounded like "Dogleash", though again, that was thanks to the thin sound recording.

The last, and most annoying thing to mention, is Michael Nyman's score. It should go down as perhaps one of the most overbearing scores ever composed for film. It's the type of music that tries to tell you how to feel, even when you're feeling indifferent to what's on screen.

Still, there are memorable and even beautiful things to recommend not entirely passing this up. The wonderfully detailed set and costumes for one add a certain air of authenticity to the proceedings; The breathtaking cinematography by Alwin H. Kuchler, which captures the wintry landscape and cold desperation of Kingdom Come and the High Sierra with a harsh, pale reality, adds another layer; I will always admire two specific scenes; The detonation of dynamite on a mountainside, causing a slow, mesmerizing avalanche; and the moving of a large mansion through the snow-capped forest, pulled by men and horses with ropes.

Kinski, who I've often found to be an under-appreciated actress, is utterly convincing as the sad, ailing Elena. She is perfectly counterbalanced by Mullen's quietly affective performance as Dillon, which is the primary focus and driving heart of the story. He makes what could have been a one-dimensional villain into a heartbreaking portrait of guilt and internal agony. It is the most emotional acting among the vast ensemble players.

Unfortunately, the promotion of the movie, on the posters and video box covers, emphasize the rather forced and passionless romantic entanglements of the younger actors, Bentley, Jovovich and Polley. The resulting effect ends up taking away from the under-appreciated performances of Mullen and Kinski. As if this was geared for teenagers, instead of adults.

It's a shame really. I've admired Winterbottom's work in the past, including his previous efforts Jude and Welcome to Sarajevo. If he had kept his focus more on Mullen's relationship with Kinski and Polley and less on the Bentley-Jovovich-Polley subplots, this would have been a more challenging and involving work than it turns out to be. As it is though, the combined efforts of the directing, the crew and the acting (save Kinski and Mullen) to emotionally detach themselves from the story, simply leaves you wishing for something a little more tangible. What's on screen is mostly two hours of beautiful, but empty, melodrama.

My Rating =

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