Straight to DVD

3:10 to Yuma

When you have a newborn in the house, almost any movie can seem like a potential Queue Blocker. At the rare times when you have a couple of relatively free hours, yet are for some reason not taking advantage of that fact to sleep, you are not going to bother hoisting yourself off the couch and taking the few steps required to put a DVD in the player if there's any risk of a slow pace.

That's part of what led us to 3:10 to Yuma, a 2007 remake (with any luck, we'll get to a 2008 film before we run out of 2008) of a 1957 Western. I remembered vaguely that it had gotten pretty good reviews, and it stars Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, both actors we like. It also has the advantage of being based on an Elmore Leonard story. With that provenance, we figured it had a good chance of keeping us entertained (or at least awake).

Bale plays the movie's lead character, Dan Evans, a Civil War veteran who's trying to establish a ranch for his family in 1880s Arizona. Things aren't going so well for him, though: He owes money to a powerful and unscrupulous man named Hollander, who wants his land. Through various tactics (restricting his water access, sending men to burn down Evans's barn), Hollander has brought the ranch to near ruin, and Evans is about to lose it. He also has to endure the scorn of his own teenage son, William (Logan Lerman), who feels his father has failed to stand up for himself and his family.

Soon thereafter, there's a nearby stagecoach robbery by infamous outlaw Ben Wade (Crowe) and his gang, and Wade is captured by the law. When Evans's final attempt to reason with Hollander has the expected effect (none at all), he agrees to be part of the group that will escort Wade to the town of Contention, where he will be put on a train to his trial in Yuma (guess what time it leaves). If Wade gets on the train, the railroad will pay Evans $200, enough to save the ranch. Problem is, Wade's gang, a dangerous band of killers led by his second-in-command (a fierce, wild-eyed Ben Foster), is coming after them to spring their leader. But Evans sees this as his last chance to save his family's fortune and redeem himself in William's eyes.

With the exposition out of the way, the film settles into the journey to Contention, which is of course fraught with dangers both physical (Apaches, the approaching gang, and the lethal Wade himself) and moral. For Ben Wade turns out to be not quite your everyday murderous outlaw: He's smart, funny, thoughtful, and extremely charismatic (especially to William, who has followed and joined the party against his father's wishes). And he seems far more interested in playing psychological games with his captors than with actually escaping.

What follows won't really hold a lot of surprises for anyone who's seen a Western before: As the various perils claim one member of the escorting party after another, the trip to Contention becomes something of a battle of philosophies between Wade, who holds a Nietzschean view of the world and his own place in it, and Evans, who believes in doing the right thing for its own sake. The two men of course gain a certain respect for each other—and Evans gets a chance to regain the admiration of his son. (In many ways, this movie feels like a darker version of Shane.)

The familiarity of these tropes could have been a major problem for Yuma, but director James Mangold was smart enough to make his film a character study with occasional explosions of action. Crowe and Bale are intense actors of very different types, and they're both perfectly cast here. Crowe gives Wade his unique combination of irresistible appeal and underlying menace, which plays off beautifully against Bale's hollow-eyed, tenacious, almost bitter stubbornness. (The supporting cast is also excellent, led by Foster and Peter Fonda as a grizzled bounty hunter.)

We also weren't wrong in our prediction that the movie would be well paced; Mangold keeps the tension high throughout, and does a particularly nice job of executing his action sequences well without ever drawing too much attention to them. He does, however, require quite a lot of suspension of disbelief of the audience, especially in the film's last act in Contention. (This is one of those movies where you find yourself shouting, "Now why would he do that?" at the TV screen a lot.)

Still, 3:10 to Yuma delivers on the greater part of its promise, and the inherent tension between Crowe and Bale will keep even the sleepiest parent's attention. It may not be an earth-shattering film, but like its lead characters, it earns your respect while providing an entertaining ride.