APPALOOSA — *** — Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, Renee Zellweger; rated R (violence, profanity, vulgarity, brief gore, brief nudity, slurs)
It helps to have a good sense of humor. In fact, having one has saved many movies. That's especially true of Westerns, a genre that's not necessarily associated with big laughs.
While there aren't a ton of laughs, there are a few deliberate chuckle-worthy moments in "Appaloosa," an adaptation of the well-regarded Robert Parker novel.
The film is not as funny as something like, say, Lawrence Kasdan's beloved, somewhat cheeky 1985 Western "Silverado," but it's got a good mix of character drama and tense action in addition to the dry humor.
And speaking of which, the handful of wry one-liners and occasional, offbeat humorous moments lighten what's otherwise a pretty serious tale about friendship, honor and the supposed "code" of the Wild, Wild West.
Viggo Mortensen stars as Everett Hitch, the longtime partner of veteran gunman Virgil Cole (Ed Harris). These two men have just been hired as the lawmen of Appaloosa, a small mining community that has been overrun by bad guys.
But to clean up this mess, they'll first have to deal with the town's worst guy of all — an evil rancher named Randall Bragg (a scene-stealing Jeremy Irons), who shot down their predecessor.
And the often aloof Virgil is smitten with the town's newest resident. She's Allie French (Renee Zellweger), a widowed piano player who immediately latches onto him. That doesn't keep Allie's eye from occasionally straying to Everett, though.
Harris also co-wrote the script, and he produced and directed the film. His performance as the usually quiet but quick-to-action gunman is terrific, and he's smart enough to leave much of the narration duties and such to the soft-spoken Mortensen (they previously teamed for "A History of Violence").
Theirs is a very believable big-screen friendship, too, and they make it seem like their characters really are drawn to the opportunistic Allie. (However, Zellweger is still doing that scrunched-up-face thing that's so annoying.)
"Appaloosa" is rated R for strong scenes of violent action (shootouts and gunplay, and violence against animals); scattered, strong sexual profanity; other suggestive talk (slang and innuendo); brief gore and blood; brief male and female nudity; and derogatory language (including racial slurs). Running time: 116 minutes.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com