Ride with the Devil (1999)

Directed by Ang Lee. Starring Tobey Maguire, Jeffrey Wright, Jewel Kilcher, Simon Baker, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Skeet Ulrich, Jim Caviezel, Zach Grenier, Tom Guiry, Jonathan Brandis, John Ales, Tom Wilkinson. [R]

Civil War drama focusing on the Bushwhackers, Missouri rebel fighters that harassed Union towns, posts and supply lines. Considerable effort was put into the authenticity and atmosphere of the production, with a real sense of the time and conditions, but the story is so dramatically diffuse and unfocused that there’s nothing to carry interest through its long convolutions, hazy inspirations, and soggy love stories (both involving singer/songwriter Kilcher, who gives a decent debut performance). The motivations of a freed slave (Wright) fighting for the Confederacy might have been intriguing if they were ever allowed to surface; instead, he is an enigma sticking out like a sore thumb (or in the case of Maguire, a blasted off pinky finger). With his long, lustrous locks and sashaying saunter, Meyers’ rebel antagonist looks like he stepped out of a rock music video. Poor adaptation of Daniel Woodrell’s “Woe to Live On” by James Schamus is heavy on declamations and exposition dumps early on, peters out long before its anti-climax at the end. A real disappointment for director Lee in between The Ice Storm and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Mark Ruffalo has a bit part.

42/100