Quick take: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Writer-director Andrew Dominik deserves praise just for attempting to transfer Ron Hansen's sprawling historical novel, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, onto film. The book captures the essence not only of James, Ford, and several of their cohorts, but of the entire West of the late 19th century. Astonishingly detailed and dripping with Americana, it could have made several movies. But Dominik bravely follows the main narrative, from the meeting of James and Ford to each of their ends, quite closely within a single 160-minute film. The result is minimalist, focusing closely on a few characters in clean, empty landscapes. It's realistic in a different way, focusing on the sparse population of the West rather than the crowded gathering places within it. The film hews closer than the book to the public perceptions at the time of James as a Western hero and Ford as a pathetic young hanger-on. But Casey Affleck gives such a vivid performance as Ford that he may have single-handedly perpetuated this image for years to come.