Martin Koolhoven’s Brims†one – a review

 Liz, a young mute mother finds her world turned upside down as a dark man from her past takes on the position of preacher in her rural village. He knows her and she, certainly, knows him –he’s out for vengeance, she’s out for blood.

Auteur

It’s always fun when you watch an auteur movie. Not to make too much of deal about it but far too often nowadays directors feel interchangeable to the movies they are making.

To be absolutely honest I feel that last year’s Spielberg’s the Big Friendly Giant (BFG) could just as easily have been made by somebody else. It lacked a lot of the elements that made it feel like a personal Spielberg movie.

So I respect it when a director simply takes credit for his work by putting his name next to the title. I don’t see it as arrogance but rather like a painter signing his work. Brimstone is Koolhoven’s picture. This is the picture he wanted to make.

It took seven years before Koolhoven got everything together to shoot this movie. It all started with the vague idea he mentioned in a Dutch talk show; that he: “wanted to make a western”.

Immediately my mind went back to one of the earliest (and possibly only) Dutch foray on the western front: the 1914 silent movie Telegram uit Mexico. A nice attempt at the developing genre back then – but obviously shot on the Dutch beach instead of the Mexican prairie (It does have one amazing (accidental) smoke effect shot that I wish more movies would use). You can watch it here: LINK.

Loving westerns

Now, after seven years, Koolhoven has finished his movie: and it’s very good. Not perfect mind you, but definitely not terrible or average. For starters you can marvel at Koolhoven’s pictural love for the genre as he frames delicious shot after delicious shot. All the cinematographic tropes of yesteryears make an appearance and if you are a western fan you can spot quite some influences. There are the landscapes, the repoussoir, the reveal shots and some fascination things his cameramen did with a drone. Visually Brimstone is a feast for the eyes.

Then there are the scriptural tropes. There is a saloon, some working girls, a firefight at high noon and, of course, the eternal quest for gold. But that’s just icing on the cake. Because the real story Koolhoven is telling is far more timeless than the mere ol’ west as I’ll mention later.

Lacking script (sometimes)

The script, however, is slipping ever so often. Carice van Houten’s and Kit Harington’s character’s, for instance, certainly have a need to be present but they feel underwritten.

Even though I must admit that –oblige me- turning to their famous roles in Game of Thrones these two actors are having quite a time playing mirror opposites to their Westeros counterparts.

Carice is basically playing a ‘weak’-in the sense of broken after years of abuse- woman. While Kit gets a chance to play a (lovable) bastard. His character might have a good heart somewhere but overall I still wouldn’t trust him completely.

Then there is the Guy Pearce character. His preacher is evil incarnate and therefore a bit one dimensional. But whenever he starts to chew scenery (and he does, a lot) he manages to lure you into his dark eyes and dark heart. It’s only when you leave the theater that you realize that his character is pretty much the weakest of the bunch. Other things that are slipping in the script are one or two coincidences that don’t really work out (which I can’t spoil) and things that make you wonder after the fact (why is the preacher is such a great shot for instance).

According to the gossip column Guy and Carice got together during this movie. You can’t see the love blooming on screen though, Guy’s character is terribly cruel to her.

And then there’s the structure. Chronologically this movie goes from 3-2-1-4. Other reviewers have asked why Brimstone couldn’t simply start at the beginning of the tale? I wonder a bit too, I must admit. But, then again, like Nolan’s Memento this movie would actually be rather straightforward if it did. Starting the picture at the third act gives it a nice ambiguity that helps the rest of the film.

But overall the script of this movie is solid enough to bring a thrilling tale to the screen. There are numerous callbacks to previous events, twists and turns and even a satisfying –though bleak- final confrontation. It’s clear that Koolhoven (who also wrote the script) had a lot of fun connecting dots as any good script should have. I argue that he missed one or two little things.

But, to counter that, the script of Brimstone does take some daring chances by (A) making the main character mute, (B) showing brutality against females and (C) actively attacking perversion of faith. Each and every one of these chances pays off.

Dakota Fanning’s: Liz.

Dakota Fanning is, as we all know, a former child actress. And like any child actress there’s always a worrisome period between the work they did as a child and the adult parts. We all know the horror stories of former child actors who went off the track during that period. But Dakota Fanning appears to have risen above that. True she isn’t the blockbuster magnet she was in the years of Hide and Seek. But she does appear to have made the transition from child actress to adult actress quite well.

You can believe Fanning’s character to be a loving mother. And her doe-like eyes are one of the great assets of this movie. Hardly ever speaking, Fanning’s acting is all about expression. As the dangers enter her life her eyes tell the audience what she’s planning and what she expects.

Additional appreciation has to go to Emilia Jones who plays the younger version of Liz. Not only do the two actresses look eerily similar (at times I thought I was watching Elle, Dakota’s younger sister) but they together complete the Liz character: Emilia Jones suffering through the past, Dakota taking back the future.

Females in a man’s world.

To start off; a lot more men die in this movie than women (and even two men I really wanted to survive). But when it comes to injustice (and death) it truly are the women who suffer the most in Brimstone.

Tygo Gernandt is a great Dutch actor who plays the bleeding crawling guy. 
Spoiler alert: His character dies! That actor just can’t catch a break. He died in Koolhoven’s other movie Oorlogswinter. He died in that other Carice van Houten film Black Death. He died in numerous Dutch movies. Will he ever survive?

One could criticize that women suffer too much in this movie. That it’s, in a sense, a victim to its own message. Like showing Christ’s torture excessively in Mel Gibson’s the Passion made audience members wonder about the faith behind the movie.

I disagree. For starters Brimstone has to show this violence to make the dangers Liz has to face real. But second, I feel, that this movie holds up a spyglass to the past and shows us how far we’ve come as a species.

But we’re not there yet! Because this movie takes the bold move of not empowering a lot of the women in their struggle under male authority parallels can be drawn to contemporary tales of women suffering from the hands of men. While, at the same time, this movie makes it crystal clear that not all men are bastard.

But, unfortunately –they do all die in the end.

So, by showing this violence Brimstone, to me, rises above male/female inequality and tells us that in this unequal world there is still goodness to be found. But maybe I’m naïvely optimistic. At least the movie triggers a discussion.

Perversion of faith.

What initially drew me most to this movie is the perversion of faith. I consider faith a good thing. Believing that there is an entity looking out for us is a reassuring thought. Religion, however, I consider a bad thing. Putting your faith in the ‘hands’ of other people or a centuries old book isn’t the wisest thing to do in my humble opinion. People tent to put away with common sense when they do.

So to see a preacher justifying himself time and again that ‘this is what God allows/wants’ is fascinating to watch. Again a parallel can be drawn to contemporary terrorists who do the most atrocious things in the name of God. 

Honestly, what God would allow somebody to enter her kingdom who tortures for pleasure?

Using biblical chapters for the four parts Koolhoven’s movie underlines this. Though a bit elitist, perhaps, using these titles does hammer home the message that people in power –males, religion, preachers- can easily turn dark. Those who are without power, therefore, are forced to be strong even though, in the end, their newfound strength might be their downfall.

Conclusion

So what did I think about Martin Koolhoven’s Brimstone. It has great shots, fantastic acting, and a script that, even though solid in the end, is sometimes skipping the beat a bit. Nonetheless if you enjoy your westerns dark and dramatic Brimstone is a great movie to watch.

One final confession: I’m not a fan of westerns (the John Wayne type). But Brimstone is right up there next to the fantastic acting piece of The assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Henry Ford.