Brimstone | Film review - Western with a whiff of sulphur

(Image credit: Brimstone B.V. / N279 Entertainm)

Retribution is coming.

There’s more than a whiff of sulphur about Brimstone, a grimly brutal Western that stars Dakota Fanning and Guy Pearce as unyielding antagonists locked in a ferocious struggle between good and evil. The movie’s unflinching violence will be off-putting to some, as will its epic length, but viewers with strong constitutions will find this a gripping watch.

Fanning is the very definition of quiet resilience as the story’s heroine, a mute midwife living in a frontier town with her pioneer husband, daughter and stepson. And Pearce is evil incarnate as the (yes) fire-and-brimstone preacher whose arrival in town causes her alarm and anguish. What is the reason for the bristling animosity between them?

Dutch writer-director Martin Koolhoven unfolds the answer in a roundabout way, telling his story in four chapters with Biblical –sounding titles (‘Revelation’, ‘Exodus’, ‘Genesis’ and ‘Retribution’) and a tricky reverse narrative that gradually reveals a shocking history of religious hypocrisy and sadistic misogyny.

Certificate 18. Runtime 149 mins. Director Martin Koolhoven

Available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Thunderbird Releasing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUBYH3Pzt9I

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.