Directed By Richard Gray

Starring – Pierce Brosnan, Samuel L. Jackson, Brandon Lessard

The Plot – Buried secrets of an 1870s Montana town spark violence when a young man (Lessard) returns to reclaim his legacy and is caught between a sheriff (Brosnan) determined to maintain order and a mysterious stranger (Jackson) hell-bent on destroying it.

Rated R for violence, adult language and some sexual material.

THE UNHOLY TRINITY | Official Trailer | In theaters June 13

POSITIVES

Regardless of the quality of film, Grey’s direction seamlessly teleports to the dangerous unpredictability of the wild west, with bountiful production values amid set decoration, costume design, and jaw-dropping scenery, which feel fully realized in every single shot of the movie’s composition. Particularly in the case of the movie’s imagery, the isolation effect conjured in surrounding mountainsides and grandeur of greens in the distance as far as the eyes can see, not only transfixes the engagement with spellbinding transitions, but also effortlessly feeds into the cautions and helplessness factors that so many of these characters continuously find themselves caught up in, giving us ample amounts of beauty to balance the devious deeds happening in a small town with quite immense circumstances. Beyond this, the only other compliment that I give to the movie is the credibly undeterred work in performances between Brosnan and Jackson, who each commit themselves faithfully to render some kind of screen presence to these otherwise one-dimensional characters. While nothing they’re doing goes above and beyond emotionally to the highest extent of their respective careers, but each of them cement endless charisma and rugged resiliency to the air of their portrayals, and in the case of Jackson’s St. Christopher, elicits a coldly conniving antagonist that feels like the prescribed X-factor, whenever the movie needs a pick-up to perk audience interests, while Brosnan’s Gabriel effortlessly exemplifies the stern and sincere sensibilities of an enforcer attempting to keep his town from crumbling to ruins, as a result of this seedily corrupt visitor.

NEGATIVES

In doing my studying on the production of “The Unholy Trinity”, I found myself surprised and even baffled by the fact that this wasn’t a TV series reshaped for cinema, especially as the script is an ever-growing graveyard of unrealized and unfulfilling subplots that forcefully convolute an otherwise straight forward narrative between the titular trio at the forefront of this movie’s plot. My counting of the various arcs and conflicts counted five among them, and while it certainly helps to involve so many secondary characters towards conveying the world-building of this distinguished setting, the movie’s 90-minute runtime leaves so very little wiggle room and patience for each of them to vividly articulate their importance to the proceedings, with an overall structure and storytelling pacing that feels seamlessly similar to the tempo of a series attempting to simultaneously balance so many characters, with the progression of a slug racing a mile. The script attempts to alleviate this unfortunate circumstance with a few meticulously placed twists along the way, which were not only predictably evident based on the lack of established outcomes in the various scenarios, but also flatly rendered with hefty impact and consequence-less circumstances, leaving so many of the intended payoffs free from any feeling of triumph for the innocent people caught in the crosshairs. Aside from an uninspiring script, the film’s technical components equally compromise Gray’s distinct vision, particularly during the movie’s sloppily rendered action sequences, which are often difficult to even discern just what is transpiring before us. Part of the reason for this certainly comes from the framing of these depictions feeling a bit too closely claustrophobic, in order to attain a semblance of discomfort, but instead smothering much of the promised violence that wastes away a sought-after R-rating, however the overzealousness of the editing is most to blame here, unloading an anxiousness for cuts during the most inopportune moments, and then stitching them together with characters outside of a scene’s integrity that has nothing to do with what we’re being shown. Such an example exists during the climax shoot out at Gabriel’s house, during which Gabriel is exchanging ammunition rounds with a random baddie, when the imagery keeps cutting to characters outside of the intimacy of their fold, enacting frustrating levels of clarity and resolution that completely took out any semblance of investment that I had to the movie’s stakes by that point. On the subject of the rating, with the exception of one moment involving a character shot through the head in graphic detail, there’s nothing that comes close to even tantalizing the movie’s rating, mostly in the depths of bloodless confrontations, leaving the action every bit as blandly unmemorable as it was distracted by the ability to devastate its audience with permanency representing such a cruel and unforgiving place. Speaking of distractions, the score from the otherwise iconic Marco Beltrami has a penchant for the melodramatic, even during scenes that don’t call for the swelling compositions that annoy the hell out of the integrity of the scenes that they forcefully accompany. I take no pleasure in calling out a singular person for their work, especially someone as versatile and proven in talent as Beltrami, but the instrumentals that he inspires here simply don’t work for the integrity of the scenes and atmosphere that never feel like they correspond with one another, taking far too much responsibility from the hands of this talented ensemble, which could ultimately serve as a reason for how limited each of them feel along the way. Beltrami utilizes unorthodox instruments and objects to the air of his work, and while I would normally praise this concept for its originality in utilizing something freshly enticing in the dimensions of a western, the volume levels from which they’re articulated reach ear-shattering levels of inescapable annoyance that directly takes audience attention away from the scene dynamic that it belongs in, leaving us wincing in fear for the next action or confrontational sequence that will trudge up an instrumental that is inevitably worst than the last, for the way it prods on audible senses that have already taken a beating. Finally, my praises for Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson don’t take away from the unflattering side of performances from Lessard and even David Arquette, who each plague the film with flat registries that make their casting unjustifiable. Arquette can somewhat be forgiven, as he’s reduced to three scenes inside of a supporting role that prove he can’t be cunning, menacing or even remotely serious as an actor, but Brandon Lessard is the embodiment of a dull protagonist, and his emotionally vapid deliveries and forgettable screen presence are made worse by the fact that a majority of the movie’s first half focuses almost entirely from his perspective, an eye opening revelation of regret that feels like it leads directly to the movie deducing him to second in command to Brosnan, during its second half. Because we feel so little of the pain and internalized agony of this character losing his father to cruel circumstance, it keeps the audience from ever investing in the extensive magnitude of his plight, with a portrayal by Lessard that feels like the timeless expression of a kid trapped in a man’s body.

OVERALL
“The Unholy Trinity” brings a knife to a gunfight, in that it rehashes the bare minimum of Western genre offerings without eliciting anything original or groundbreaking that keeps the wheel spinning for its continued resurrection, leading to one of the most agonizingly dull and lifeless finished products that I’ve seen this year. Despite breathtaking scenery and transportive production values that vividly set the stage in the dangerously murky depths of the wild wet, the execution feels lifelessly like a TV series reshaped for cinema, with bloodlessly overcomplicated action sequences that can’t even pay off an audience in periodic entertainment for the lifetime spent inside of its 90-minute runtime.

My Grade: 3.1 or F