Ben Mendelsohn in Slow West (A24)

The feature debut of former Beta Band member John MacLean is an arty little Western that has some pretty remarkable things going for it, but the title is not necessarily symbolic. The thing moves like molasses.

Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is making his way to San Francisco to find his true love, Rose (Caren Pistorius). She and her father fled Scotland after an accident that Jay feels responsible for. However, Jay is woefully ill-equipped for a trip across the dangerous American West of the 1840s. Or at least the American West of American films, which the movie is clearly attempting to riff on and occasionally upend. He is aided by outlaw-turned-bounty hunter Silas (Michael Fassbender), who, of course, has his own ulterior motive for helping the hapless, lovelorn Jay. The main thrust of the movie is the softening of Silas and the hardening of Jay due to one’s influence on the other. In other words, it’s a buddy Western.

Smit-McPhee does a wonderful job. His naiveté and single-mindedness masks his sense of guilt, and his love (possibly unrequited) of Rose is a compass point that guides his moral bearing. Fassbender, on the other hand, struggles. He is a first-rate actor, but his inherent iciness never thaws enough for us to see the beating heart inside. One longs for the sardonic cynicism of a young Harrison Ford. This part would fit him like a well-worn suit.

The supporting players are all enjoyable but underdeveloped. You have the usual outlaw gang of misfits that want to get to Rose for an entirely different reason than Jay. They are led by the always enjoyable Ben Mendelsohn, who imbues his character with an amused malevolence. Everyone else, including Rose, comes off as colorful window dressing.

As previously mentioned, urgency is not a priority here. The movie has the pace of an indie character study with occasional bursts of violence. So, you have to hang the film on Jay and Silas’s relationship, which is as clichéd as it comes. You’ve seen it in countless Westerns: the seasoned amoral veteran taking care of the naïve but honest Easterner. The freshness should come from the post-modern, character-oriented approach, but it only goes halfway on that count, which makes for an odd construction.

Yet there are some fantastic set pieces, and the final shootout is masterfully done, but the film’s like a Camaro that insists on just revving its engine instead of opening up and tearing down the road. It looks good, the talent is there, it just refuses to move.