The Proposition (2005)

Director: John Hillcoat

This Australian Western is very nicely photographed. Unfortunately, it's also cold, brutal, humourless and ultimately boring. The outlaw Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) is ordered by Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) to find and kill his older brother in exchange for his younger brother's life. For a film whose story centres on brotherhood, questions of loyalty and so forth, none of the characters seem close enough for us to care about their relationships and about Burns's central dilemma. Even the relationship between Stanley and his wife Martha (Emily Watson) is drab and unconvincing - most of the scenes the two share seem like a lame attempt on the filmmakers' part to balance out the movie's sadism with a little tenderness. Nick Cave's script aims to tart up the relentless bloodshed with occasional lines of half-arsed half-poetry, but having the guy from Sexy Beast gaze into the mid-distance reflecting, "Australia... What fresh hell is this?" just doesn't work.