Ombre dal passato

So we have a true-blue Hollywood film directed by a true-blue Bollywood director, and barring a few like Shekhar Kapoor, this feat is as rare as it gets. Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Abhijat Joshi took the drafts of Parinda and ran them over the barren landscapes of crime- infested US-Mexico border and to be fair did not make a complete mess out of it. There are enough things to appreciate here. The performances are impressive and so is the cinematography. The movie does not fail due to the want of acting chops or production quality. What it lacks is plain, strong storytelling.

It had all the makings of a strong, moody tale with sparse characters and dusty landscapes of a Western. It could have even aimed somewhere between Unforgiven and A History Of Violence but unfortunately ended up way off-the-mark. The tension and mood that Chopra tries to build could have worked so well had it not been for the predictable turn of events and all too familiar tropes of brotherly sagas. Eventually, the plot just doesn't have enough conflicts and the story is much rather fit for a TV movie or a 40 minute episode rather than a 2 hour movie.

Consequently, the events seem stretched and apart from the intended ones, boredom is one of the major emotions you'll feel undergoing this ordeal. The melodrama doesn't help either. Marquette has the most to do and overplays the slow-brained older brother. Anton Yelchin is controlled but it's Vincent D'Onofrio as Julius Hench who makes the movie watchable with his menacing demeanor. His overbearing persona is pitch-perfect and his performance alone deserved a better movie.

It's not that Vidhu Vinod Chopra has done a bad job but he just hasn't done enough with the job at hand. What's there on the screen looks half-baked and incomplete and the movie lacks that punch and tension that you expect from a drama like this. The cinematography by the brilliant Tom Stern (long time Clint Eastwood collaborator) is the other aspect of the movie that lands it above the usual fare.

'Broken Horses' ends up as a job half done but not for the lack of resources at hand. I would still take heart from the fact that Bollywood meets Hollywood isn't the easiest of marriages and Chopra's attempt deserves attention, if only he can learn from it and deliver the next time.

(Upperstall.com)

As "Broken Horses" was drawing to a close, I formulated my review. I had just one sentence: "You could do worse than spend a totally free evening --when there's no cricket, even--watching this movie."

It is just a yarn, spun without imagination, and that yarn isn't substantial enough to be woven into a unique design.

There were a couple of twists and turns, some modicum of suspense, many efforts to get the tear ducts opening, but all through I kept thinking, "This is kind of embarrassing." If the movie theater had been full, I dare say there would have been guffaws at the flat story-telling and the clunky dialogs. That would have amused me.

With movies on familiar themes you want slick treatment, snappy dialog, and a sound-track that tells some of the story without the aid of words. And in this movie where music is a major theme, I really missed the magic an original score and sound-effects can play.

That's it. You aren't likely to go bananas about any aspect of this film, except may be the photography. Having seen this, I am not dying to see "Parinda" either.

I expected more of this film. Performances offered by Vincent D'Onofrio normally impress me, but this movie is so overwhelmingly bleak, the story so implausible, and the characters -- Buddy, Jakey, and Vittoria aside -- so unlikeable, that even his performance could not save this underwhelming picture. I will say this: the cinematography was amazing. I had a real sense of place the whole time that I watched it in the cinema.

If you can suspend reality and accept the completely implausible premises set up by whoever wrote this mess of a movie, then you may well leave the theatre raving about what an excellent film it is. You may even mumble that the principals involved and the actors featured in it deserve consideration for various prizes. Not me, though. I can accept that it is alright, but I will not be singing its praises anytime soon. I would take a pass on Broken Horses if I were you.

Greetings again from the darkness. The old adage "blood is thicker than water" has always been fruitful movie fodder. Writer/director Vidhu Vinod Chopra takes the theme to a small, dusty town on the Mexico border. He introduces us to the sons of the local sheriff … Buddy is the slow-witted eldest and Jakey the bespectacled musical prodigy.

Buddy is flashing his dead-eye aim at the shooting range when his father (Thomas Jane) is murdered right in front of him. Local mobster Mr. Hench (Vincent D'Onofrio) seizes the opportunity to utilize young Buddy's need for revenge. Jump ahead 15 years, and Jakey (Anton Yelchen, Star Trek) is engaged to Vittoria (Maria Valverde) and living in New York City as a classical violinist. Things get interesting when Buddy (Chris Marquette) entices Jakey to come visit after being away for eight years.

Jake isn't in town very long before he fully understands that Hench has a grip on Buddy, who is now a full-fledged hit-man engulfed in the various border gang wars. Here is where the brotherly bond kicks in. Watching it play out against the manipulative power of Hench provides the meatiest conflict within the film. The brothers admit to living on "different planets", but it's clear that their traumatic childhood has connected them in a manner that time and distance can't break … even though one of them more readily identifies "bad men".

Sean Patrick Flanery (Boondock Saints) has an odd, but hyper-energetic small role, but most of the screen time is taken by D'Onofrio, Yelchin and Marquette. A better written role for Ms. Valverde would have been advantageous, but mostly this is a solid little crime drama with an emphasis on brotherly bond.

I don't get it. This movie has some high levels supporters (such as James Cameron) praising the movie, yet I can't see in any way how they are able to back it up. We have here a film centring round two brothers, who are caught in the middle of a corruption ring. One brother is slow witted and is being used whilst the other is trapped in his efforts to help his brother.

It's about brotherhood, loyalty, blood etc etc. The problem is that it just isn't gripping. The storyline is mostly poor and nothing complex, but the underlying themes need something challenging. It's absent here.

The main leads are fair enough and not big names, working hard with the material in front of them, but they can little save this.

The cinematography is beautiful and so is the natural scenery, but that's as good as it gets.

Not by any means the poorest film of late, but one that I can't seem to like. If it wasn't for the major sponsors of this film it likely would never have got any of the attention it ever did.