No Man's Land

This earnest Western drama can't overcome characters who are thinly drawn (and not very smart) and the constantly shaking, headache-inducing camerawork. Star Allyn co-wrote the screenplay, while his brother Conor Allyn directed, and it seems that they had something very well-intentioned in mind: a portrayal of the immigrant experience told from the point of view of sympathetic White people. But that's not really who should be telling immigrants' stories, and it turns out quite awkwardly, from the overall approach to individual moments.

There's a strange chase scene featuring a truck following a horse and a moment in which Jackson drinks from a water hole that his horse refuses to touch (he should have known better). A would-be suspenseful sequence involving a drive-by shooting is rendered confusing by poor editing and too many close-ups, and there's even a montage sequence accompanied by a mournful song. A villainous character with shaved, dyed punk-rock hair and tattoos who keeps turning up to cause trouble is a one-dimensional annoyance, all fake swagger and threat. After nearly 115 minutes of No Man's Land, it becomes clear that even Jackson isn't much of a character. He's so single-minded that no gray areas are revealed to make him feel more human, not even a near-flirtation with the lovely Victoria (Esmeralda Pimentel), who's never seen again. It's a shame that the movie doesn't quite work, when the brothers seemed to try so hard.