Despite a pretty good
cast and crew, All the Pretty Horses is kind of derivative. Matt Damon stars as
a rancher's hand leaving to strike out on his own around the 1950s. Directed by
Billy Bob Thornton from a book by Cormac McCarthy.
Damon plays John Cole, a ranch hand who leaves his home in Texas with his friend Lacey Rawlins (Henry Thomas). The death of Cole's father means his estranged mother has taken control of the ranch, leaving Cole pretty penniless. From Texas they head for Mexico to find work, and on the way they meet young runaway Jimmy Blevins (Lucas Black) whose braggadocio leads them to believe his horse is stolen. They want nothing of him and leave him behind, but he comes along anyway, and his horse is lost in a storm. Blevins sees the horse in a Mexican town and aims to steal it back, splitting up the group, and this begins some serious trouble for all the guys.
Cole and Rawlins do find some work on the ranch of a rich Mexican (Ruben Blades), with Cole catching the eye of his lovely daughter Alejandra (Penelope Cruz). Although Cole impresses the father, her aunt frowns on their relationship, doing what she can to warn him off as well as trying to reason with him to leave Alejandra's reputation unsoiled, especially by a manual laborer such as himself. The two guys get arrested later as accomplices to murder and horse thieving with Blevins. Cole does his utmost to defend himself as well as the others, while trying to stay alive in the seedy and bleak prison setting.
While the acting is not bad (although Damon and Thomas' accents are not that great, the supporting cast are pretty good in their roles), the plot and script feels really contrived and watered down, and the character arcs are like so many other films. Cole goes through a sort of coming of age as he experiences cruelties and life lessons (he's supposed to be in his teens), but his romance with Alejandra is really bland and nothing is really original about it--they're just two attractive people brought together by happenstance and hormones and the film doesn't show that they have anything in common. Cole also seems to have a lot of skills that the film doesn't really give any history to, until he needs to fight or shoot or whatever; the film doesn't show enough backstory to him or any of the other characters nor any kind of historical elements that would let us know what might be going on in Texas or Mexico. Characters come and go in the vicinity of Cole's life but once they are not physically in the picture, the film doesn't mention them at all. Like when Cole is in jail, there's no moping about Alejandra, or no real worrying about his fate. A connective emotion for the audience seems to be missing throughout the film.
The film is very good looking, with a nice rustic feel and keeping to unglamorous sets such as the cantina, the prison and the bunkhouses. Lucas Black as Blevins was a believable cowboy character but he felt incidental to the plot and Cole's story; his character is the catalyst that brings trouble upon them, but he like the others are not referred to often enough. The actress who played the grandmother was also good. I liked the small moment when an old man who Cole had helped comes back to help him.
Damon plays John Cole, a ranch hand who leaves his home in Texas with his friend Lacey Rawlins (Henry Thomas). The death of Cole's father means his estranged mother has taken control of the ranch, leaving Cole pretty penniless. From Texas they head for Mexico to find work, and on the way they meet young runaway Jimmy Blevins (Lucas Black) whose braggadocio leads them to believe his horse is stolen. They want nothing of him and leave him behind, but he comes along anyway, and his horse is lost in a storm. Blevins sees the horse in a Mexican town and aims to steal it back, splitting up the group, and this begins some serious trouble for all the guys.
Cole and Rawlins do find some work on the ranch of a rich Mexican (Ruben Blades), with Cole catching the eye of his lovely daughter Alejandra (Penelope Cruz). Although Cole impresses the father, her aunt frowns on their relationship, doing what she can to warn him off as well as trying to reason with him to leave Alejandra's reputation unsoiled, especially by a manual laborer such as himself. The two guys get arrested later as accomplices to murder and horse thieving with Blevins. Cole does his utmost to defend himself as well as the others, while trying to stay alive in the seedy and bleak prison setting.
While the acting is not bad (although Damon and Thomas' accents are not that great, the supporting cast are pretty good in their roles), the plot and script feels really contrived and watered down, and the character arcs are like so many other films. Cole goes through a sort of coming of age as he experiences cruelties and life lessons (he's supposed to be in his teens), but his romance with Alejandra is really bland and nothing is really original about it--they're just two attractive people brought together by happenstance and hormones and the film doesn't show that they have anything in common. Cole also seems to have a lot of skills that the film doesn't really give any history to, until he needs to fight or shoot or whatever; the film doesn't show enough backstory to him or any of the other characters nor any kind of historical elements that would let us know what might be going on in Texas or Mexico. Characters come and go in the vicinity of Cole's life but once they are not physically in the picture, the film doesn't mention them at all. Like when Cole is in jail, there's no moping about Alejandra, or no real worrying about his fate. A connective emotion for the audience seems to be missing throughout the film.
The film is very good looking, with a nice rustic feel and keeping to unglamorous sets such as the cantina, the prison and the bunkhouses. Lucas Black as Blevins was a believable cowboy character but he felt incidental to the plot and Cole's story; his character is the catalyst that brings trouble upon them, but he like the others are not referred to often enough. The actress who played the grandmother was also good. I liked the small moment when an old man who Cole had helped comes back to help him.
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