Old Henry

This is a good movie well worth watching. Tim Blake Nelson is exceptional, and really brings out the flavour, mood, and good old-grit lined western essence almost single-handedly... which is not to say the other performances aren't great. Stephen Dorff is also fantastic here, but the cast and performances are solid all round, with the exception of Gavin Lewis (as Wyatt) who I think is miscast.

Direction, production, script and screenplay are all 'on point' and though the story is a fairly straight forward one, the story has been told very well. It starts of as a fairly slow burner, gathering momentum as the plot unfolds, and builds up to a crescendo of a final act packed with action suspense and intrigue.

Such is the authenticity of the vernacular the movie employs I found the dialogue difficult to follow at times. For the most part this didn't detract from my enjoyment, but be warned, you may find it hard to keep up in certain moments when the verbal exchanges become fast and fluid.

If I have any criticism, its that the film seems longer than it is because there are points in the movie that do labour a little. That said, I very much enjoyed it overall, especially since its not your run of the mill western... more a microcosmic look at certain elements of western life, which I really think take this one in a better direction than so many more recent films.

I give this one a 7.5 but in the interest of it being such a unexpected surprise, I'm bumping it up to 8.