For the last decade movies have gone the way the rest of our lives have gone. Most people don’t want to wait for anything anymore, and the world of entertainment has gotten on that instant gratification train. When it comes to movies, the thing to do now is to quickly explain and get to the point as fast as you can, there is no time to just sit and take it all in and enjoy. But in the words of a great prophet named Ferris “ Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”. Just like life too often a movie’s plot movies too fast, so when one comes around lets you look around, it’s kind of refreshing.
Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a sixteen year old on a mission. That mission has brought him from jolly old England and to the wild west of America. He is out to find the woman he loves, Rose (Caren Pistorius) and stay alive while doing so. Along his travels, Jay meets Silas (Michael Fassbender), who offers to help Jay get to his destination and protect him, for a fee of course. Together Jay and Silas, must navigate a landscape filled with hostile Indians, bounty hunters, and people who seem nice, only to rob you blind later.
When it comes to titles, “Slow West” is the perfect title as well as description for this film. Nothing moves fast in this movie, but that is not a bad thing. With a run time of eighty-four minutes, the slow pace doesn’t feel long, because the movie isn’t. What you get is a slow boil, which hits the perfect temperature in the last fifteen minutes. Writter/Director John Maclean let’s the landscape tell as much as the story as the words do, which lets you help soak up the environment. Both Smit-McPhee and Fassbender command your attention as men both searching for something. “Slow West” proves that you don’t have to rush to everything to make something enjoyable. With a realistic environment and strong performances you will appreciate that the film takes its time. I for one enjoyed this this adventure, and the world John Maclean has created, because he showed you don’t always have to be in a hurry to get to where you are going.
Brian Taylor
