Place of Bones

This is obviously going to try and be one of those gritty, how it really was, Westerns. You know the type - the poverty, the danger, the dirt, the easy way men kill others. Then you quickly realise this is not gritty like American Primeval or 1823 are.

The best actor by far is Corin Nemec who plays a man, Calhoun, who's been shot and is found by a mother and daughter who live in a wooden shack with barely any furniture or change of clothes but the shack does have a large window of stained glass panels. Why? The shack is in a rocky valley - so how do they grow crops and where are the animals? No horses, cows, not even a chicken. Perhaps it was a very tight budget that couldn't stretch to livestock!

By being there, Calhoun has brought trouble and there is the inevitable misunderstandings, gun fight and deaths.

I did not see the end coming and it is almost worth watching the film for that, otherwise, really don't bother.

It is years after the Civil War. Pandora (Heather Graham) and her daughter Hester are living on an isolated desolate ranch. Her husband is dead and buried on a nearby hillside. They are always watching out for intruders. They find a wounded bank robber followed by more criminals looking for the stolen loot.

There is a flatness to this western. There is something missing. I couldn't put my finger on it until the final revelation. The movie keeps hinting on something sinister, but it never says it out loud until the end. I couldn't feel anything for any of these characters because I could never be sure about them. While the ending is interesting, it's a long flat wait to get there.

I don't understand how people are giving this such glowing reviews. The acting is lifeless, it comes across as if they are actually just reading the lines. The dialogue is so cliched I can confidently say it must have been written by Yosemite Sam. The locations consist of one small house with barn and outhouse and one wooded area, that's pretty much it.

So after 60-80 minutes of not very much you get a very lazy shootout and a twist ending which really should have been the idea for the whole plot instead of just a twist.

Better acting or a better script, or better action, any of those would have raised this up to be a 5 star movie but all of them just fail.

It was quite clichéd throughout. A desperate widow and her daughter live alone in the middle of nowhere, with no horses or obvious farming-just a grave for her deceased husband and nothing else. I thought the girl was feeding chickens, but there are no chickens to be fed; she's just scattering small stones around. One day they end up with a con man and a bunch of stolen money in their cabin. How will they survive the real bad guys who are after the con man? I watched with many questions until, at the very end, everything falls into place. This is one of those movies where you can expect a sequel. Just for the ending, my rating goes from 5 to 8.

What to say about this film? Be patient? It's almost worth watching, using your valuable time on this planet, just to see the twisted finale. I consumed only 3/4 of this film before bed, before I couldn't take anymore. I was disappointed. Other than a really cool Smith & Wesson Schofield, beautiful stained glass windows and some sudden, unexpected graphic violence, it was rather slow with poor acting. Then I watched the remainder, the next morning, with a good cup of coffee. Things changed overnight, creating a hunger that allowed me to see some of the value in "Place of Bones". Likely, the greatest problem was the scarce budget. Not sure how they could afford Heather Graham, as Pandora, or why she agreed? Perhaps times are thin, she needed to stalk her freezer? Or, maybe she's just a actor who likes to have a bit of fun, feeding her appetite for a western from time to time (see "The Last Son" 2021 for better fare). Tom Hopper, as Bear John and leader of the baddies,was the weakest character in my humble opinion. Even his costume sucked, especially the modern cowboy hat. The story has some great potential but similar tales, films, already exist. One in particular comes to mind, one that is much better but I'm not going to spoil this film for you. Kudos to the rest of Bear John's gang as, they were cool characters with sweet costumes. Liked Zachary Keller as Little Pete and totally missed the awesome MMA star Donald Cerrone as Minor Wilson; until I started investigating the film further. They all did a reasonable job being good black hats. A short call out to Ray Abruzzo as Lester. Though he is only in the film briefly, his characters dress and deportment come across really well, making you wish you had more. This film takes a lot of time before it redeems itself? If can't recommend it, except to starving western fans like myself, who keep devouring anything in the genre. There is some fun to be had here but you have to be quite patient, and hungry.