7/10
This is Texas; deep Texas.
Folks here have a permanent glossy sheen of sweat on them because there
are no air conditioners. They move at a
slower pace down here; they even talk slower.
You wouldn’t last too long in the heat if you moved as if you had somewhere
to be. Bob (Casey Affleck) definitely
has somewhere to be, and it is not in his prison cell.
In an opening that skips most of the action to get to the
what happens next, Bob and Ruth (Rooney Mara) are in a shootout with the local
cops, their accomplice is dead, and Ruth just shot a cop, Patrick Wheeler (Ben
Foster), in the shoulder. Bob takes the
wrap, goes away for 25 to life, and pregnant Ruth starts to get on as best she
can while promising to wait for Bob.
Promises are one thing; actually doing the waiting while
raising a baby girl by herself is an entirely different set of
circumstances. After four years, Bob,
unable to fathom being away from his girls for the rest of his life, breaks out
of prison and as most town folk guess, is on his way back home. Everyone wants to see Bob disappear; he most
likely would succeed too. However, Bob
only wants his girls back. He is a
desperate man who has no plans to return to prison.
Everyone involved, except Bob, knows how this whole thing is
going to end. I suppose men in prison
need a particular amount of hope to get by, but those on the outside are
tired. They see Bob and they see a past
they would prefer to forget and leave buried.
There is a sense of inevitability; everybody knows the moves. Even the cops move slowly and wait for Bob to
come to then instead of rushing around to track him down.
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is a drama, not a shoot-em-up and
escape and evasion action thriller.
There are a couple shootouts, but they play out just as they would in
real life; they are short and confusing.
Patrick, all better now, takes a shine to Ruth. He has his suspicions about that day so long
ago, but he sees a different Ruth; he sees a poor woman who works hard, goes to
church, and raises her daughter right.
Watching over everyone, including Ruth, Bob, and the cops,
is Skerritt (Keith Carradine). Every
small town has one of these guys. He is
not the mayor or the town gossip, but he knows everyone’s business and appears
to wield more influence than anyone else around. He watches over Ruth as a father would, bear
hugs Bob when he sees him but would just love to see him disappear, and may
have one or two other secrets up his sleeve.
Nobody knows what the title Ain’t Them Bodies Saints means;
it probably doesn’t mean anything.
Unlike many generic titles though, you’ll remember this strange yet
ridiculous title. We also have no idea
what year the story takes place in.
There are no advanced electronics around, but the cars aren’t too old,
the early ‘70s perhaps?
Writer/director David Lowery saturates the film with a thick
atmosphere; you can almost feel the oppressive humidity seeping through the
screen. Lowery also landed an extremely
talented cast. Casey Affleck’s Bob is a
latter generation Robert Ford who is not too far removed from The
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007). Mara, Foster, and Carradine are all in top
form as well; Carradine brings a little of his Wild Bill Hickock from Deadwood
with him though.
The award-winning (Sundance) cinematography by Bradford
Young aids the film as much as the cast.
The sunlight is brilliant and almost all of the scenes during the day
seem to be in the twilight hours. Young
was anything but going through the motions here; there are noticeable tracking
shots of Affleck and Mara which draws the audience in closer when most other crew
behind the camera would merely hold the camera in one place.
Also, the editing jumps around, especially in the beginning
while we are trying to figure out where we are.
Lowery edited this year’s Upstream Color and while not cut
nearly as challenging as that film, Saints has its fair share of abrupt
sequences which try and snatch the rug out from under the audience.
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is saddled with an awful title, but
it is a sweaty and dramatic tale about what happens after the shootout. Is the girl still waiting for the man she
swore she would wait for? Does the man
look beyond his own immediate needs and think about what is best for his
girls? This is not action material which
is most likely why it works so well as a drama.
Directed by: David Lowery
Written by: David Lowery
Starring: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Ben Foster, Keith Carradine, Nate Parker