Review: `James' a dreamlike look at fame

Brad Pitt stars as Jesse James in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" ― one legendarily famous person playing another ― and that's one of the few injections of reality in this otherwise otherworldly production.

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It's set during the late 1800s in Missouri, at the end of James' storied criminal career and during the final year of his life before he was shot to death by a member of his gang. A Western in aesthetics only and steeped in period detail, it's really more of a steadily percolating psychological thriller, a study of obsession and paranoia. But it has a dreamlike quality that lifts it from the trappings of time, place and genre, an impressionistic flow reminiscent of the best of Terrence Malick.

Some will call writer-director Andrew Dominik's film slow, overlong, draggy, even self-indulgent. "Languid" and "hypnotic" might be more felicitous words, but it's true, "Jesse James" could have been stronger if it had been a half-hour shorter.

Still, it features some moments of tantalizing suspense, as well as riveting performances from Pitt and Casey Affleck as the killer, Ford. Sam Rockwell, Paul Schneider, Sam Shepard and James Carville compose the well-chosen supporting cast. But just as much a star is the great Roger Deakins, the longtime Coen brothers cinematographer who also recently shot "In the Valley of Elah" and who bathes "Jesse James" in a warm, soft sense of melancholy.

That may sound like a surprising stylistic choice given the violent nature of the movie's subject matter, based on Ron Hansen's book, but the result is disarming and inspired. A nighttime train robbery, for example, becomes an almost romantic ballet of light and shadow.

The holdup turns out to be the last for James' stoic older brother Frank (Shepard, barely used), who's getting out of the crime business for good. Jesse carries on with the other longtime members of his gang, as well as a new hanger-on by the name of Bob Ford, who's read about Jesse's exploits in nickel novels from afar and desperately longed to join him.

Affleck does something remarkable here with his performance: He makes you feel sorry for this weasely, whiny, 19-year-old kid, yet fear him at the same time. From the title you know he's the killer, but he's also the film's true villain. Pitt's Jesse can be volatile and his reputation for unflinching violence is justified, but he's so complex and charismatic, you almost want to see him succeed; you certainly don't want to see him shot down, even though you know that's what's going to happen at the outset.

"I have believed I am destined for great things," Bob announces at the beginning, though even he doesn't seem entirely convinced of his words.

Jesse seems vaguely annoyed by this creepy, clingy newcomer but he also likes the idolatry, so he keeps him around to the frustration of his more senior soldiers, Dick Liddil (Schneider) and Wood Hite (Jeremy Renner). Only Bob's ingratiating older brother Charley (Rockwell) is on his side because he figures the two of them can get in on the action as a team.

But slowly, over time, Jesse comes to trust none of them. He suspects that they're all out to get him ― not just Bob but the men he's worked with for years ― and that if two of them are talking together, they must be conspiring to take out this most wanted of wanted men and collect the reward.

Simultaneously, they grow more frightened of him than they already were, worrying that he has a sixth sense about what they're up to at all times. A scene in which Jesse shows up at a farmhouse where his men are staying and sits down to dinner is breathtaking in its suspense; Charley awkwardly falls all over himself to make Jesse happy, Bob chafes at being the butt of jokes, and Jesse challenges them both in such a way that it's impossible to tell whether he's kidding.

Just because he's paranoid, though, doesn't mean he's wrong. Bob goes from worshipping Jesse to realizing "he's just a human being," a husband and father of two. And so when Jesse asks in toying fashion, "You want to be like me, or you want to be me?" the answer isn't obvious to Bob or to us ― and it's no clearer even after he's fatefully pulled the trigger.

"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," a Warner Bros. release, is rated R for strong violence and brief sexual references. Running time: 160 minutes. Three stars out of four.