Slow West

A young man comes to America from Scotland and heads west, seeking the girl he loves. Unfortunately, a lot of other people are seeking Rose (Caren Pistorius) and her father as well, including Silas (Michael Fassbender), who decides to use Jay to lead him to them, under the guise of protecting the fool boy.

Because Jay (Kodi Smit-McPhee) really has no idea what he's doing. He has no map, no wilderness skills, no guide. He knows the name of the place he seeks, he knows it's west, and he has a compass. So he's going West.

You know things are going to end badly in this movie, and they do. Even worse than I suspected, actually. Jay's keeps trying to do bold things to be a man, or prove his love, or something, and he keeps making things worse. Rose, as we see in flashbacks and the present, is the cautious, realistic one. Jay's the one who thinks grand gestures will somehow fix things. He's read a lot of books, and that's given him notions about things, I guess. See where that gets him.

The movie mixes in a few funny scenes, like Jay figuring out how they can dry their clothes and keep moving. It tries to do a little fleshing out on the others tracking Jay and Silas. Not enough to make you particularly care about them, but it reveals a few things about a couple of them, about how their little group came together.

Silas' arc is fairly predictable, but even given the relatively short run time, they build it slowly enough that his shift feels gradual. The gruff guy who gradually softens and tries to do the Right Thing, which naturally doesn't go all that well for him, either. But he and Jay are an amusing pair, at least once Silas will actually talk with him a little, even if it's just to criticize whatever Jay is doing or saying at that moment.

The big fight at the end isn't anything novel or unique, but it sets a lot of different pieces in motion at once, which at least keeps things interesting. There's more balls in the air, and you aren't sure when some of them are going to land, or where.