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73%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #2,635
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A man is shot and quickly buried in the high desert of west Texas. The body is found and reburied in Van Horn's town cemetery. Pete Perkins, a local ranch foreman, kidnaps a Border Patrolman and forces him to disinter the body. With his captive in tow and the body tied to a mule, Pete undertakes a dangerous and quixotic journey into Mexico.
--IMDb
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Here was the scenario - it was Friday night and I really wanted to see a movie. I had already promised I would see "Lucky Number Slevin" with a friend on Sunday night, so that was out of the question. There was really nothing else opening in wide release this weekend that I wanted to see. I mean - seriously - can you imagine anyone sitting through ninety-minutes of "The Benchwarmers"? So, I decided to catch an indie flick that I not yet had the chance to see, "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada", which was very likely the most critically acclaimed film of last year, though it received zero Oscar nominations and very little critical buzz when it actually counted. It dominated the Cannes Film Festival and the early buzz was phenomenal, but when Tommy Lee needed the critics the most, they opted for "Brokeback Mountain" and "Crash" instead. So, needless to say, I walked into the theatre to see this film with the highest of expectations, something I would have never predicted from a film directed by Tommy Lee Jones. My feelings on the film turned out to be - well - mixed. I liked it as much as I loathed it.
The film opens when two troopers a dead Mexican in the Texas desert, a man identified as Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cesar Cedillo). His best friend in the world was a cowboy named Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones). We see the look of pain and loss as he looks upon his dead friend in the morgue. Pete pressures Sheriff Belmont (Dwight Yoakam) to find the murderer responsible, but Belmont does as little as possible because the deceased was a Mexican immigrant. So, Pete decides to do a little investigating of his own, which eventually brings him to the door of Border Patrolman Mike Norton (Barry Pepper), who thought Melquiades was shooting at him only to discover, after he was dead, that the man had actually been shooting at a coyote. We learn that Pete made a promise to Melquiades, that if he died before Pete, that Pete would take his body to the town of Jimenez, Mexico, and bury him with his wife and children. Pete is determined to keep this promise. He kidnaps the patrolman who killed Melquiades and the three of them - Pete, Mike, and Melquiades - begin a trek across the border to take the deceased man home. By the end of the film, both Pete and Mike have taken on a little wisdom.
The first half of the film is intercut with flashbacks of Pete and Melquiades, from the time when they meet throughout their friendship, up until Melquiades' death. This first half sets up that friendship, Norton as a dirty patrolman who will take any chance he can to slap a Mexican around, and three others characters who really have very little relevance to the primary plot of the story - a waitress (Melissa Leo), Norton's wife (January Jones), and the sheriff of the town. That first half really drags along. Things pick up when Pete begins his journey, but the second half turns into something very unusual, as Melquiades' body becomes more and more rotted, and as Norton is put through various forms of agony at the hands of Pete. One sequence involves Pete trying to get the ants off his dead friend, and deciding to light his face on fire in order to get the ants off. I understand the reasoning, but it seems like deciding to set your friend on fire instead of letting some ants crawl on him might be canceling the other out somewhat. There is also too much bipolar behavior from Pete's character. One minute you think he has decided to take it a little easy on Norton, and then he has a gun to his face. Once again, I understand the reasoning, but I just thought it was a little too brutal. After all, Norton really didn't mean to kill Melquiades, and it appears that Pete knows this for a duration of that second half, but he is still just as menacing and just as vicious with him.
Thanks to the lush cinematography of the Texas/Mexico desert, there is a lot for the audience to see other than the torture and the pain. Tommy Lee Jones delivers a stellar performance as star and director here. He has an obvious talent for directing, and he was the perfect person to play the role of Pete. Barry Pepper shines in a really strong role. It was nice to see him in something accessible again. And, Julio Cesar Cedillo is quite entertaining as the namesake of the film. The remainder of the characters played by Yoakam, Leo, and Jones, really have very little to do. They could have been written out of the script altogether. I especially didn't see the relevance in the continuation of their storylines once Pete started his journey. I would have much rather preferred to see Pete and Norton on screen than a naked Melissa Leo and half naked Dwight Yoakam. That scene rivals the Kathy Bates "About Schmidt" seen in terms of unfortunateness. So, in a nutshell, the film was a mixed bag. A part of me loved very much of it - Tommy Lee Jones and Barry Pepper and the beautiful cinematography and the scene with the old man and with the medicine woman; the other part was annoyed with the dragging first half, the unnecessary characters and side-plots, and the moderately unsatisfying ending.
I know what you're going to say - it's suppose to be simple. I know that, and it was. It was as simple as a movie can get. However, simple does not always equal good. I spent close to two hours of time in this film and then I discover most of what I have been waiting for was a complete and utter lie. That annoys me. "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" was not nearly as powerful and passionate as many reviewers made it out to be. It lacks quite a bit. Tommy Lee Jones did a phenomenal job in both of his roles, but I am more anxious to see what he has in store for us next. It's just hard to sit through 120 minutes of watching a corpse slowly deteriorate before our eyes as Jones' character pours salt on it, pumps anti-freeze into it, and sets it on fire. I just couldn't take much more that than. Alas, as disgusting as that was, it was nowhere near as gut-wrenching as having to view Melissa Leo's 55-year-old sag bags and Dwight Yoakam's pathetic little beer belly. That might be something that sticks in my head, and my nightmares, for years and years to come. It took three times to bury Melquiades. It took a little over two hours to sit through one of the most overrated films of last year.
6.5/10.
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