AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS (2013) - Movie Review

Director: David Lowery
Starring: Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Keith Carradine
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Writer: David Lowery
Runtime: 96 min
Rated: Rated R for some violence
Buy This Movie: Blu-ray (Amazon), DVD (Amazon), Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

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Synopsis:

Academy Award Nominees Rooney Mara (THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, SIDE EFFECTS) and Casey Affleck (THE KILLER INSIDE ME, GONE BABY GONE) star as a pair of doomed lovers separated by prison bars and miles of desert wasteland in AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS, a moody collision of love and crime in the tradition of Bonnie and Clyde. Four years ago, impassioned young outlaw couple Bob Muldoon (Affleck) and Ruth Guthrie (Mara) were apprehended in the Texas hills during a shootout that left a local officer wounded by a bullet from Ruth's gun. Taking the blame, Bob was sentenced to 25 years in prison. After having engineered a daring escape, Bob is now determined to reconnect with the love of his life and meet the daughter who was born while he was incarcerated. But the journey back won't be easy, and the powers that be threaten to keep the two lovers apart forever. Co-starring Ben Foster (THE MESSENGER) and set against the gritty landscape of 1970s Texas Hill Country, AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS is a breathtaking and exquisitely photographed meditation on the fragility and transience of love.

Review:

"Pete's Dragon" and "The Green Knight" director David Lowery's first major feature directorial project "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" is a lyrical folk tale with a great cast that gets often overlooked, and unfairly so. It's perhaps not an easy movie to get into, but it is a strong cinematic achievement from a director who at the time had mostly directed shorts.

The film bears the aesthetic characteristics of 1970s crime flicks sprinkled with western elements and wrapped in a poetic atmosphere reminiscent of Terrence Malick films. However, unlike Malick's usually meandering style, "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" has an unusual amount of focus. Its narrative isn't complex, but its characters and the ties that bind them are. There's a strong emotional richness here that Lowery, who also wrote the script, knows how to extract and maintain.

A deep melancholy lies at the heart of this film, and it's aided immensly by the sepia-toned cinematography and an inventive score by Daniel Hart. All the performances are pitch perfect. Understated, but not dull, intense and raw, always engaging and sympathetic in unexpected ways. I think my favorite performance is Keith Carradine's as Skerrit, Bob's reluctant surrogate father, who is also the film's most fascinating character.

Perhaps a major drawback to this movie is that Lowery keeps the story pretty vague at times, which may cause issues with figuring out some things, like for example Bob's relationship to Skerrit. It requires a little more attention to details than perhaps most viewers would enjoy, but it's a powerful story drenched in atmosphere and folkish charm and I say give it a chance, or maybe even a repeat viewing.

SCORE: 8/10