“Truth” and “justice” are noble ideals to fight for, clear enough in their meaning to give a story some purpose, and malleable sufficient for one-dimensional characters to masticate under the illusion of gravitas. Try as he might, screenwriter Eric Belgau’s earnestly articulated thematic intentions for “Murder At Yellowstone City” are immediately undone by its title. This meat and potatoes western delivers what’s promised on the box and nothing more. And while there’s nothing wrong with a no-fuss oater, the lumbering, two-hour-plus ‘Yellowstone City’ strains at a stateliness far beyond the reach of its nuts and bolts script. For all its effort, “truth” and “justice” could just as well be the name of two horses.
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Sticking to a well-established array of character tropes, there’s no worry of being lost if you tune in halfway through ‘Yellowstone City’ on cable, where you’re most likely to find this one day. Representing “truth” is Thaddeus, the town preacher, a man devoted to the cloth but whose secretly exceptional skills with a gun are betrayed by the fact he’s played by the Punisher himself, Thomas Jane. He’s joined by his wife Alice (Anna Camp), whose pure ministerial grace would stoke envy in a nun. Standing up for “justice” is Gabriel Byrne, who keeps law and order in Yellowstone as Sheriff Ambrose, with one eye on his son Jim (Nat Wolff). The rest of the town includes a Shakespeare-quoting barkeep (Richard Dreyfuss), an Indigenous orphan (Tanaya Beatty), and a prostitute named Isabel (Aimee Garcia), who leads the rest of the women that operate out of the saloon. The only thing missing is a town veterinarian/doctor; given how things will eventually heat up, the residents of Yellowstone will wish they had one.
Still reeling from a mine collapse and unlucky streak in getting anything out of the ground, the town’s quiet existence is upended when local prospector Dunnigan (Zach McGowan) strikes gold only to be subsequently murdered. Cicero (Isaiah Mustafa), a freed slave and drifter who has just rolled into Yellowstone with a suspicious amount of gold in his pocket, is arrested, with Ambrose hoping to close the books on the case to maintain peace swiftly and for the sake of Dunnigan’s widow (Scottie Thompson). But Alice and Thaddeus aren’t so sure about Cicero’s guilt. Again, straightforward stuff, but there are a few horseshoes in the story to toss around first.
The inevitable showdown between Thaddeus and Ambrose has to wait for the film’s undercooked mystery to play itself out. The thing is, the reveal of the actual murderer is a reasonably decent twist on paper, but without any subtext to let it resonate, it merely becomes another plot point as every character keeps tediously being pushed toward the bullet-riddled climax. It’s a missed opportunity because, without giving anything away, it could be easily leveraged to examine codes of sexuality, gender, and masculinity without giving up the action stuff that likely got the film financed in the first place. You can’t fault a movie for what it didn’t set out to do, but even as a standard piece of programming, ‘Yellowstone’ rarely operates beyond perfunctory.
Marking the eighth feature by director Richard Gray, the genre-hopping filmmaker has ranged from indie drama (“Summer Coda”) to horror (“Mine Games”) to medieval saga (“Robert The Bruce”). Marking Gray’s pass at a western, “Murder In Yellowstone City” seems prioritized by narrative efficiency at the cost of any directorial distinction. Reteaming with cinematographer John Garrett (“Sugar Mountain,” “Robert The Bruce”), the pair get all the surfaces and interiors of the saloon, jail, and church right, but for a film actually shot in Montana, the location lensing is disappointingly anonymous. Even working with arguably his starriest cast yet, Gray doesn’t get much out of his ensemble beyond the lines they’re given. The performances solidly do the job of moving things along, but as game, as they are, Belgau’s screenplay offers the actors few options to work around its creaky dialogue.
By the time everyone learns that “truth” and “justice” can both be served, it’s only after a final act shootout as endless as it is wearying that leaves dead bodies strewn all over town. There might be a lesson in there somewhere, but “The Murder At Yellowstone City” isn’t the kind of picture to linger on morals or contemplate regrets. As the citizens of Yellowstone talk of rebuilding and a better world to come, you might be wondering how a western featuring Gabriel Byrne as a Sheriff and Thomas Jane as a gunslinging preacher could be this instantly forgettable. [C-]
