Viggo Mortenson is a multi-talented person. He’s an actor, writer, producer, and director, and here, he even takes a stab at composing. While gifted, there are some areas he still needs a little polish. In his second directorial effort, The Dead Don’t Hurt, Mortenson returns to the Western genre, but with it, he brings every trope we’ve ever known about the genre with him.
The film is set in 1860s Elk Flats, Nevada, and follows the romance between French-Canadian Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) and Danish infantryman Holger Olsen (Mortenson) as the two meet, fall in love, and build a life together. One of the techniques Mortenson employs is a brash form of intercutting between past and present. In the first half hour or so of the film, it is abrasive and inconsistent. This makes following along with the story harder to do as it takes a while to fully understand which narrative he’s telling, and where we are in the story. Once the film finds its footing, you realize we are flashing back to moments in Vivienne’s childhood to understand her character. She’s a fiercely independent woman who despises war and is incredibly resentful of the standards of marriage at the time. We come to discover her father had returned to war when he didn’t have to, and her mother was powerless to stop him. Her father would never return.
Krieps is excellent as Vivienne. She conveys a believable sense of palpable annoyance with anyone she dislikes, and can contrarily flip to a genuine warmth and proper kindness to anyone she does. Krieps is given a full ⅔ of the film for us to understand her, witness her relationship flourish, and all the struggles she encounters. Despite her being the majority focus for much of the film, it never feels like it’s her narrative. Outside of the relationship, we find that those in power in the town are corrupt and are abusing their authority to take over the land and kill those who stand in their way. Celebrated character actor Danny Huston leads the charge as the corrupt mayor working in tandem with wealthy businessman, Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt) and his entitled and unquestionably violent son, Weston (Solly McLeod). They’ve set up one of their associates to take the fall for a crime Weston committed, so they can gain majority ownership of parts of town.
When Union soldiers come to town to gather volunteers to join the army in the Civil War, Olsen agrees to go despite Vivienne’s protestations, leaving her alone and vulnerable. This is where the film goes the exact route you’re expecting. It isn’t long before Vivienne, now working in the local bar that has been purchased by the Jeffries, catches the eye of Weston, and commits the most violent and unspeakable act. Sadly, this is why the film never really feels like it belongs to Vivienne. We never see Olsen’s time in the war, but his presence is what’s mostly felt as the film goes on – knowing that at some point, he will return to exact his revenge.
What feels destined to be a catharsis-driven chase for blood never manifests. Instead, Mortenson returns to the same intercutting between past and present that made the first half hour so distracting, never drawing anything from it that would enlighten Olsen on his journey or give voice to Vivienne’s intentions. So it therefore ends up leading to a final duel that’s as unbelievable as it is underwhelming. What should be a tense, high-adrenaline rampage is taken down to a quiet, contemplative tale on the notion of violence and what it can become.
Through this, we’re meant to understand Vivienne’s perspective, but the structure of the film never leads us to that point. Everything we’re seeing is leading us to a bloody confrontation not just with Weston, but with every corrupt leader in town. The standard hero’s return and liberation of the town from tyranny. The narrative all but leads us to that familiar point only to not deliver, which ultimately weakens Vivienne’s place in the story as a whole. It becomes less about her wants or wishes or even her dignity but reduces it to just a challenge between two men. Their egos and their thirst for power or revenge, their incessant need for war – she ends up just being the woman in the way of it all.
The Dead Don’t Hurt is currently playing in theaters courtesy of Shout! Studios.
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Phoenix is a father of two, the co-host and editor of the Curtain to Curtain Podcast, co-founder of the International Film Society Critics Association. He’s also a member of the Pandora International Critics, Independent Critics of America, Online Film and Television Association, and Film Independent. With the goal of eventually becoming a filmmaker himself. He’s also obsessed with musical theater.
