Director: Seth MacFarlane
Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Neil Patrick Harris, Liam Neeson
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 116 mins. Reviewed in Jun 2014

| |

Rating notes: Strong sexual references, crude humour and comedic violence

Burdening its respectable cast with a script that frequently feels forced, this Western-tinged comedy occasionally contains comedic gold, but it ultimately isn’t worth the effort of panning for it.

Average sheep farmer Albert Stark (Seth MacFarlane) is wildly out of place in our setting: the Wild West frontier of Arizona in 1882. When he chickens out of a gunfight, his girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried) leaves him and he despairs. When a beautiful, lonely stranger (Charlize Theron) arrives in town, Albert makes firm friends with her and shows her around. Her husband – the notorious outlaw Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson) – soon comes looking for her, but Albert sees that taking the fight to Clinch may be just the courageous act he needs to win back Louise.

The film begins with the disclaimer that some people don’t belong in the West. It treats this as an excuse to fill the film with anachronistic dialogue and annoyingly contemporary delivery from the recognisable names in the cast – because some people don’t belong in the West, this film focuses on those that don’t belong and point out everything that is wrong with the period from a modern perspective. Seth MacFarlane’s brand of humour (he was one of three writers on the film) is unsuited to this approach, and comes across as abrasive and condescending when aimed at the residents of a more primitive society. There are numerous films where ‘fish out of water’ characters generate laughs, such as ‘Witness’ and the ‘Back to the Future’ trilogy, but the jokes here feel too aggressive and mean-spirited to let the audience laugh comfortably. The jokes come thick and fast, and though several stick in laugh out loud fashion, the majority that miss weigh heavily on the proceedings, and leave the whole effort feeling artificial. Those that hit the mark are largely derived when our star-studded cast take a break from lampooning their surroundings and instead interact with each other. Though this leaves the film sounding humourless, it isn’t. There are flashes of strong comedy here, but they are mired by its less funny attempts. Few subjects are off limits, and anyone who is easily offended should steer clear of this film.

Elsewhere in the film, there crew produces mixed results. Opening with a magnificent, bombastic score from Joel McNeely as the camera soars high over the classic wide vistas of the American West, the film immediately has a classic feel, which is later at odds with the comedy style. The score works well throughout the film, but the cinematography from Michael Barrett never returns to these heights, and there are a surprising number of shots which are poorly lit to the point of distraction. The production design of the town of Old Stump and the set decoration (by Steven Lineweaver and Carla Curry respectively) are great, and the dusty streets and ramshackle domiciles and shops feel convincingly timeworn.

The cast is populated with an eclectic list of big names. While their performances are serviceable, none of them are contextualised in the period, which is off-putting. Seeing Charlize Theron unleash a barrage of vulgarities is a funny departure from her normal persona, but doesn’t really have much of a role in developing her as a character. For the first time in front of the camera, Seth MacFarlane leaves a mixed impression. His character says that he is not a hero, but ‘the guy in the crowd making fun of the hero’s shirt’, and the description is apt too for MacFarlane. Never trying to play it straight (admittedly his comedic timing is decent), he instead chooses to poke fun at the long history of Western heroes who have come before him. John Wayne he is not.

Offensive and obnoxious, Seth MacFarlane’s sophomore live action film does not live up to the promise of his debut ‘Ted’. This is a film which had the potential to be a modern comedy and deconstruction of the Western on par with ‘Blazing Saddles’ but falls disappointedly and glaringly short.