Shadows on the Wall | The Old Way

The Old Way

dir Brett Donowho
scr Carl W Lucas
prd R Bryan Wright, Micah Haley, Sasha Yelaun, Robert Paschall Jr, Brett Donowho
with Nicolas Cage, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Noah Le Gros, Clint Howard, Shiloh Fernandez, Abraham Benrubi, Kerry Knuppe, Nick Searcy, Boyd Kestner, Adam Lazarre-White, Corby Griesenbeck, Katelyn Bauer
release US/UK 13.Jan.23
23/US 1h35

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A gentle pace is livened up by vivid characters in this Western, which layers a steely sensibility beneath a fairly standard plot. Director Brett Downwho cleverly avoids unnecessary flourishes, leaving that to the adept cast. So the film strikes a traditional Wild West tone. Spectacular Montana landscapes are augmented by Andrew Morgan Smith's surging score, plus an entertaining mix of gruff frontier humour and sudden nasty violence.

Living on a picturesque farm with his wife Ruth (Knuppe) and young teen daughter Brooke (Armstrong), gunslinger-turned-shopkeeper Colton (Cage) has put his violent past behind him. Then it returns in the form of the vengeful James (Le Gros), whose father Colton killed two decades earlier. After James and his crew (Howard, Fernandez and Benrubi) attack Ruth when she's home alone, Colton is unwilling to let the Marshal (Searcy) handle things. Instead, Colton heads out to settle the story. Refusing to stay behind, the intrepid Brooke accompanies him, and she proves to be a quick learner.

"You boys have woke up the devil," Ruth says when cornered by the bad guys, knowing that her husband is not a man to mess with. Along with the double-whammy revenge narrative, the film includes all of the usual genre details, including ambushes, showdowns and shootouts. None of it is hugely original, and it's also unusually low-key, but Downowho adds fresh visual touches while focusing on offbeat details. This gives the actors space to create memorable characters and find unexpected emotions along the way.

Cage makes Colton enjoyably tetchy, a man who takes a matter-of-fact approach to life. He also becomes especially intense after his old life reignites his killer instinct. Cage finds continual textures in the role, and he has terrific banter with Armstrong, who more than holds her own opposite Cage. Which is no mean feat. With his crazy-eyed charm, Le Gros makes James a smart but thoroughly nutty villain. And the surrounding characters add plenty of grit.

As Colton mentors Brooke in the ways of an outlaw, he offers morsels of wisdom that create an undercurrent of enjoyable thematic touches. This includes some reflective thoughts about why his coldness makes him different, so he has learned to play-act as normal. He also opens up about how Ruth profoundly changed him. But it's the way he ignites an instinct within Brooke that adds an extra kick to the movie, ending on a note that's both satisfying and a little chilling too.

themes, language, violence 12.Jan.23

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