Les amants du Texas

'AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara star in this romantic crime drama about young lovers who are also outlaws, in Texas, that's crime spree comes to an end when one of them is sent to prison. He then breaks out of prison, years later, and travels home to see his wife again and meet his daughter for the first time. The film was written and directed by David Lowery and also stars Ben Foster, Nate Parker and Keith Carradine. It's a routine story but it's beautifully shot and the acting is all more than decent.

Affleck plays Bob Muldoon and Mara plays Ruth Guthrie, they're outlaws in Texas who run into trouble on their latest heist and Guthrie shoots and wounds a police officer named Patrick Wheeler (Foster). Muldoon takes credit for the shooting and Guthrie claims to not have been involved in any of their crimes, so Muldoon goes to prison as Guthrie has their child. He later escapes, multiple years later, and travels home to see his wife again and meet his daughter. As he returns he finds the police waiting for him and Wheeler is now romantically interested in his wife.

The movie seems inspired by classic 'young love and crime' films like 'BADLANDS' and even 'BONNIE AND CLYDE' but it isn't nearly as memorable as the movies it's trying to emulate. Lowery is a talented director though and (like I said) the acting is great and the cinematography (by Bradford Young) is beautiful. Affleck and Mara are well cast as the young lover outlaws but their talent (along with Foster, Carradine and most of the rest) deserves a lot better than this script. There's just nothing to it. The film looks good enough to make it worthwhile though and that title is classic (Affleck says it doesn't mean anything but is just Lowery's misinterpretation of the lyrics to a song). It's style over substance filmmaking but it's gorgeous all the same.

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David Lowery has constructed a beautiful, atmospheric, little indie film with this 1970's Texas crime melodrama. At every point where Lowery could have added Hollywood flourishes and gimmicks to make the film more commercial he refuses to do so. The result is a thin crime & punishment type plot that functions as a canvas for this tone poem about passion and tragedy. I don't know if I could say there's anything ultimately redemptive about these sad, doomed characters but perhaps it's enough to say that they possess a degree of humanity that makes us pity them for the choices they've made. This is another triumph for Rooney Mara who is excellent as a strong, young woman who desires a better life and a man who can't get it for her. There's great irony in the way events turn out for her and it's all totally believable. I was also impressed with Casey Affleck's performance as her lover and small time criminal. In supporting roles there's Nate Parker as a friend of Affleck; Ben Foster's sympathetic police officer and Keith Carradine soaring as a town elder and father figure to Rooney and Affleck. "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" is a great looking picture and Bradford Young deserves all the praise he has earned for his cinematography.

At his televised 80th birthday celebrations, the esteemed British director Sir David Lean had a message to young, budding film-makers: Listen to us; learn from us. Then do your own thing.

Debutant writer-director David Lowery has clearly been influenced by the American New Wave directors of the 1970s. And then done his own thing.

Ain't Them Bodies Saints follows the relationship of Bob Muldoon (Casey Affleck) and his partner Ruth Guthrie (Rooney Mara). Besieged by local Police at an isolated farmhouse, the pregnant Ruth injures an officer in the shoot out. Bob Muldoon takes the rap for this crime and is incarcerated for a long stretch. Several years later, he affects an escape from the prison in which he is held and makes his way back to his home town in rural Texas.

There is very little back-story or explanation of events in this atmospheric film. This appeared to be a deliberate ploy by Lowery. Like the Curate's egg, it was good in parts . But ultimately it left too much of the plot inchoate: who were the three men hunting down Muldoon? Bounty hunters? Erstwhile partners in crime? We weren't privy to their motives and this detracted from the narrative. This was but one example. The very title of the film is also rather enigmatic and might lead some to believe the film is more bloodthirsty than it actually is.

Casey Affleck, who has enjoyed something of a patchy and sporadic acting career to date, is perfectly cast as Muldoon. As he showed in his Oscar-nominated performance in The Assassination of the Outlaw Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Affleck has a great ability to convey a threat of violence without displaying any physical intimidation. He does so again in this film exuding a latent and uneasy menace. Hopefully this role will prove a springboard for Affleck and give him some momentum – he has good screen presence.

There was also a strong performance from Rooney Mara and support from Ben Foster and Keith Carradine.

The cinematography was, on the whole, superb. Long linking shots in subdued colour gave a great feel for the small town Texan setting amidst arable farmland. The wonky camera shots for the close ups we can put down to current, hopefully soon obsolete, fashion.

And if the pacing was a little on the slow side at times, well David Lowery is still learning his craft.

This is a very promising debut from a rookie director. He is one to watch.

Ain't Them Saint Bodies

I liked the movie "A Ghost Story" by Director David Lowery, so I searched for another movie of his which was critically praised and I landed up seeing this movie "Ain't Them Saint Bodies" The movie is a take on Bonnie and Clyde style LOVE story of a couple Bob (Casey Affleck) and his pregnant partner Ruth (Rooney Mara) who gets involved in crime activities and are caught by police, with Bob taking the blame of shooting a cop Patrick (Ben Foster) and goes to prison and daily writes a LOVE-letter to Ruth asking her to wait for him. Ruth delivers a baby girl child, and after 4 years Bob escapes from prison to be with Ruth and his daughter - hoping to live a peaceful life. Will his wish fulfill forms the remaining story. The selection of the script by Sundance even before shooting started and premier at Sundance Film festival gave a boost to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival giving it critical acclaim. The leading pair Casey Afflect and Rooney Mara's chemistry is wonderful. Director David Lowery has his distinct style with slow pace, beautiful shots, blended background score and music, on the edge characters that leave something mysterious for audiences to dwell deep into their psyche. The back-drop of Texas terrain is beautifully captured by cinematographer Bradford Young . The plot moves deliberately with sequences that take the narrative forward. The laggardness of the dialogues and interactions could have been avoided to a certain extend to make script more tight knit. The best and the most touching dialogue of the movie is the first voice-over letter he writes to Ruth from prison - It is so beautiful and carries the essence of the whole movies in those words: "Every day I wake up thinking today's the day I'm gonna see you. And one of those days, it will be so. And then we can ride off to somewhere. Somewhere far away" and it goes on... It is a classic LOVE story of a out-law couple presented in an unusual new way by David Lowery's surreal sensibilities (obviously feels like under the influence of Terrence Mallick - of Days of Heaven fame) I would go with 6.75 out of 10 for this movie.

Deeply indebted to Terrence Malick's style. So much so, it never really becomes its own thing (unlike, say, Beasts of the Southern Wild, which had so much of its own energy Malick's name never popped up in my mind until long afterward). Fortunately, the performances in it are so good that it's quite worthwhile. Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara star as a couple who get caught up in criminal activities. The two are caught, Affleck goes to prison and Mara gets acquitted. She gives birth to their daughter, and the two live comfortably under the protection of Keith Carradine and, after a while, a police officer (Ben Foster) who harbors a crush on her. When the child is around 4, Affleck escapes from jail and goes looking for his old girlfriend. All four of the principle actors are fantastic. Mara, whose Oscar nominated performance in The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo is one of the few I've skipped in the last few years (I loathed the Swedish original), has blown me away between this and Side Effects. She is the real deal. Affleck unfortunately never became the huge star he deserved to be after The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (that was six years ago!). I really wish his brother Ben would've cast him instead of himself in his last two films (it's one of the reasons that, in my opinion, Gone Baby Gone remains Ben Affleck's best film as a director). Foster, too, deserves to be a bigger star, with Oscar caliber performances in The Messenger and 3:10 to Yuma. I wish the film were a bit more original, but the acting really does sell it.