Buried secrets of an 1870s Montana town spark violence when a young man returns to reclaim his legacy and is caught between a sheriff determined to maintain order and a mysterious stranger hell-bent on destroying it.
Chuck says:
I’m going to assume that for some odd reason, despite being international movie stars, Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson had never been to Montana. Thus, knowing the western “The Unholy Trinity” was being shot there must have been enticement enough for them to agree to appear in it. Surely, the quality of the script by Lee Zacheriah couldn’t have been the reason, what with its stilted dialogue, silly complications and hackneyed situations? Surely, these veteran actors have been in the game long enough to be able to recognize a turkey when they read it, can’t they? Can’t they?!? It HAD to be the Beartooth Mountains that called to them.
If nothing else, the locations are striking in director Richard Gray’s film, the pristine sky and clear air prompting my son Grant to comment, “That has to be CGI!” Alas, it is not, though some of the sets used to create the fictional town of Trinity are so clean, one would think they’re made from pixels, rather than wood. This may seem like a nitpicky concern, but to be convincing, westerns must have a rugged feel about them. The houses need to look weathered and rough, the clothes should appear dirty and frayed and it there are prostitutes, they certainly shouldn’t possess straight white teeth and shiny, flaxen hair.
Again, these elements may seem inconsequential, but when the script to a movie is less than engaging, these are the things you start to notice and by the end of this seems-like-much-longer-than-93-minutes experience, I had a list of inconsistencies a mile long. What’s the film about you might be asking? Well, I’ll do my best to sum it up as this is a miracle of plot construction, a story in which there are a great many moving parts, none of them contributing to any sort of narrative expediency.
Brosnan is Sheriff Gabriel Dove, a well-meaning lawman with a secret. He’s helping to hide Running Club (Q’orianka Kilcher), the killer of his predecessor. Why, I’m not sure. If that doesn’t keep him busy enough, he also must contend with Henry Broadway (Brandon Lessard, armed with the charisma of a fence post) who’s wandered into town, intent on killing him. Seems he’s seeking vengeance for the death of his father and looking for a cache of gold he hid. Unbeknownst to Broadway, his dad’s old partner St. Christopher (Jackson) has been following him, hoping the young man will lead him to the hidden treasure, of which he feels he’s owed a share. There’s also a renegade deputy (Gianni Capaldi) who’s out to usurp Dove’s power, a gang of ne’er-do-wells after Broadway for killing one of their own in self-defense and a verbose preacher (David Arquette) who is not what he seems.
With all this going on, you would think there’d be something of interest to keep the viewer engaged. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Not a single character is fully developed, Zacheriah’s simplistic dialogue proves vexing for all by the most experienced cast members, and the predictable plot is deadening. Granted, Brosnan provides a solid center and Jackson’s hammy turn is fun, but putting the bulk of the film on Lessard’s shoulders is a major mistake. Overearnest and obvious, he couldn’t carry a scene if it had a handle on it, his experience all the more glaring when sharing a scene with one of his veteran co-stars. When all is said and done, “Unholy” lives up to its title, proving to be a sin against the western genre.
1 1/2 Stars
