3:10 to Yuma
Though 3:10 is a fresh stab at the nearly forgotten western of decades past, it strives to neither reinvent nor pay overwhelming homage to the genre. Director James Mangold (Walk the Line) merely uses the blueprint as a frame for a plain but powerful tale. Initial credit must go to noir author Elmore Leonard's source story, and then to the original 1957 film starring Glen Ford. But this character-driven tale of good and evil succeeds primarily due to the expert role-playing of each of its lead actors. Christian Bale continues to surprise, and his work here as the unfortunate but heroic Evans will surely further an already amazing career. Yet it is the iconic portrayal of the villainous Wade by Russell Crowe that lends the most dramatic weight. Crowe steals the show, but also shares a complicated and believable chemistry with Bale that makes this movie much more than a garden-variety vanity vehicle.
A fine cast fills the empty spaces with conviction - notably veteran Peter Fonda as a grizzled bounty hunter and the emerging Ben Foster as Crowe's bloodthirsty best man. The film quietly manages to turn the wide open Wild West into a series of breathless set pieces. 3:10 deftly balances the classic western trappings with a ruggedly beautiful truth. It is a terrific picture that tells an old-fashioned, yet deceptively simple story of good and bad – and the gray area between.