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The good, the bad and the dreamy: Slow West is a stylish western

By Brian Viner for Daily Mail

Published: 16:42 EST, 25 June 2015 | Updated: 20:39 EST, 25 June 2015

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Michael Fassbender plays Silas, an Irish bounty hunter in the mystical Slow West

Slow West (15)

Rating:

A quirky western that won’t appeal to everyone, Slow West has a mood and style that I found captivating, and a mystical quality emphasised by the unrequited love story at the heart of it.

Teenage aristocrat Jay (Kodi Smit McPhee), travels from Scotland to Colorado to find the passion of his young life, Rose (Caren Pistorius), forced to emigrate with her father after being implicated in a murder.

We never find out how dreamy, romantic Jay has got as far as he has, only that he won’t get much further without the help of the strong but silent Silas (Michael Fassbender), an Irish bounty hunter aware of a $2,000 reward for turning in Rose and her father, dead or alive.

Also in pursuit of the reward are a fake parson, and a gang, led by the villainous Payne (Ben Mendelsohn), of which Silas was clearly once a part.

Writer-director John Maclean keeps all this to a taut 84 minutes, and teases from young Smit-McPhee a performance to match those of the excellent Fassbender and Mendelsohn.

I could pick holes, but there are quite enough in the epic final shoot-out, as they all converge on the remote farm where Rose and her dad are trying to piece together a new life.

The other star is the backdrop.

New Zealand stands in spectacularly for the American west, and cinematographer Robbie Ryan seizes every opportunity to make the film’s look as arresting as its content.

New Zealand stands in spectacularly for the American west, and cinematographer Robbie Ryan seizes every opportunity to make the film’s look as arresting as its content. Above, Fassbender with Kodi Smit McPhee, who plays teenage aristocrat Jay

What the Hayek is Salma doing in this shocker?

Everly (18)

Verdict: Ghastly revenge thriller

Rating:

'Ghastly': Salma Hayek's new revenge thriller Everly does not impress

Salma Hayek is one of the world’s richest actresses, not by virtue of her professional achievements (impressive though they are), but as a consequence of being married to one of the richest men in Europe, French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault.

Why, then, she felt the urge to appear in this ghastly, exploitative, grotesquely violent film is really anybody’s guess.

Perhaps she felt that she would be striking some kind of blow for womankind, as a sex slave, Everly, who after years of imprisonment breaks free and kills her Japanese captors and their henchmen in various nasty ways. But it is a peculiarly warped notion of empowerment.

There are many (rather too many) films driven purely by bloodlust, the kind of films that incite real people to commit real crimes.

But most of them can muster at least some claim of artistic credibility. Here, there is none.

From the grim first moment to the blessed relief of the last, this film is offensive on just about every level, from the use of a child to the jolly Christmas songs that play over scenes of sick depravity.

If Hayek is not ashamed of herself for taking part, those of us compelled to sit through it will just have to feel it on her behalf.