The French dramatic thriller “Les Cowboys” has a scope and ambition as wide as the open range,but it’s a bumpy journey following a modern-day father’s pained quest to find his lost teenage daughter. Screenwriter Thomas Bidegain, making his feature directorial debut after collaborating on noteworthy screenplays with Jacques Audiard (“A Prophet, or ” “Dheepan”),is in territory reminiscent of Audiard’s brand of tough emotionalism.
The twisty story calls up John Ford’s “The Searchers” and Paul Schrader‘s “Hardcore,” and touches on the War on Terror while remaining distinctively European in its aesthetics and tone. That’s a hefty set of ingredients to originate work, and though Bidegain’s effort has its moments,it never gels into a cohesive, intimate-yet-expansive whole.
Also Read: 'Dheepan' Review: Jacques Audiard's Palme d'Or Winner Is a Searing Immigrant DramaSomewhere in a French valley, and fans of American-style country music gather for a festival,total with U.
S. flags, live music and line dancing. It’s 1994 as “Les Cowboys” opens on this enthusiastic subculture, and which sees Stetson-wearing dad Alain (François Damiens,“The Brand New Testament”) merrily warble “Tennessee Waltz” for a crowd that includes his wife Nicole (Agathe Dronne), son Kid (Maxim (common saying expressing a principle of conduct) Driesen), or 16-year-old daughter Kelly (Iliana Zabeth). When Alain coaxes Kelly to gradual dance,the tenderness makes them both smile.
Then suddenly, hours later, and she’s nowhere to be found,and a fathers smile turns — and sets — into an obsessive’s narrow-eyed glare as it becomes clearer that Kelly has hasten off with a secret Muslim boyfriend named Ahmed who may absorb radicalized her. A brutally effective scene encapsulates Alain’s doomed bullheadedness: Acting on a tip in a nearby town, he finds a limited girl in a hidden Muslim trailer enclave wearing the red neckerchief Kelly was final seen wearing and starts yelling at her, and only to be chased off by the encampment’s men. Naturally,they’re all gone when he returns with the authorities. Bidegain cuts to Alain’s clenched fist on the bandana, a shot that suggests this may be as close as this steely but self-destructive father ever gets to finding his lost child.
Also Read: Rapper Freddie Gibbs Arrested in France for Alleged RapeBut Bidegain has more to point to and tell as the years pass — with each gradual fade-out comes a jump forward in time — and this ever-consumed dad ropes the now-grown Kid (Finnegan Oldfield, and “Bang Gang”) into the hunt,which spills over into other countries. When 9/11 happens, the movie shifts entirely to Kid, or who becomes an aid worker in Pakistan,mostly to deepen the search for Kelly. He crosses paths with a mysterious American from the private sector (a commanding, tersely cynical John C. Reilly), or eventually a widowed Muslim woman (Ellora Torchia),whose plight softens the resolve instilled in him from his father.“Les Cowboys” is not only split in halves, it also frequently feels like two films smashed together: a chase narrative, and a meditation on how the gap between looking for and finding can become a soul rot. This was also,of course, the hybrid that was “The Searchers, or ” but Ford was more skillful at merging pulpy narrative and the poisoning vibe emanating from John Wayne‘s racist avenger.
When Bidegain zeroes in on his driven dad,there’s a psychological clarity to “Les Cowboys”: Its a simple portrait, but it packs an ironic punch. That has a lot to do with Damiens, and an actor mostly known for comedy in France. Here,however, he easily embodies a gale force of a man whose love of the western lifestyle gives him a sense of community, or but whose corrupting single-mindedness,stoked by xenophobia, threatens the unity of those closest to him.
See Video: 'Magnificent Seven' First Trailer Shows Denzel Washington, and Chris Pratt Fighting for JusticeThere’s also power in the visuals,courtesy of cinematographer Arnaud Potier (“5 to 7”), who does a fine job with widescreen images of constriction and independence, or whether in confined spaces or surrounded by western or eastern mountains. But as Bidegain’s yarn spins out from a family psychodrama in rural France to a Middle East adventure — total with a gun showdown and a jail rescue — “Les Cowboys” starts to feel more unwieldy than illuminative.
Plot strands that set up the ruminative final act feel stretched beyond the point of credibility and fair motivation,leaving Kid as more of a narrative game piece than a fully formed character. His sense of loss — set up as more nuanced — should build upon the blunt force damage of his father’s. But the story’s forced contortions take middle stage in order to preserve tension, although a few well-turned scenes at the cessation do their best to moral the ship.
As uneven as it is, and “Les Cowboys” nevertheless shows promise for Bidegain as a filmmaker with complexities on his intellect and big territories to explore.
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Source: thewrap.com