JANE GOT A GUN
(director/writer: Gavin O’Connor; screenwriter: story by Brian Duffield, Brian Duffield, Anthony Tambakis, Joel Edgerton; cinematographer: Mandy Walker; editor: Alan Cody; music: Marcello De Francisci, Lisa Gerrard; cast: Natalie Portman (Jane Hammond), Joel Edgerton (Dan Frost), Noah Emmerich (Bill Hammond), Rodrigo Santoro (Fitchum), Boyd Holbrook (Vic Owen), Ewan McGregor (John Bishop), Maisie McMaster (Katie), Piper Sheets (Mary); Runtime: 98; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Terry Dougas, Aleen Keshishian, Zach Schiller, Scott Steindorff, Mary Regency Boies, Natalie Portman, Scott LaStaiti; Handsomecharlie Films/TCM/The Weinstein Company; 2025)
“A standard western.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Writer/director Gavin O’Connor (“Pride and Glory”/”The Accountant”) serves as the replacement director when the original director Lynne Ramsay quit on the first day of the shoot, as did Michael Fassbender and Jude Law, who were in the starring roles, as did Woody Allen’s favorite cinematographer Darius Kohndji.
O’Connor delivers a standard western.
After production was halted, it was filmed 3 years later. It’s based on the story by Brian Duffield, who also co-writes it with O’Connor, Anthony Tambakis and Joel Edgerton.
Jane Hammond (Natalie Portman), in 1871, in the New Mexico Territory, lives on an isolated ranch with her young daughter Katie (Maisie McMaster) and her husband Bill “Ham” Hammond (Noah Emmerich). Hubby comes home on horseback one day with a few bullets in him that Jane pulls out. He’s left bed-ridden, as he warns her that the Bishop Boys, a gang of wanted outlaws, led by the twirlable mustached baddie John (Ewan McGregor), are on the way to wreak revenge.
Jane takes her daughter to stay with her neighbor rancher and seeks help from her grumpy gunslinger ex-lover Dan Frost (Joel Edgerton), who lives nearby. He comes to her aid even if he has no love for her hubby. Dan moved on when Jane left him after never hearing from him while he was a soldier in the Civil War. She assumed he died fighting.
Through flashback we learn Jane was kidnapped with her young daughter Mary on a wagon train leaving Missouri several years ago and was forced into prostitution. Jane was rescued by the wanted gunslinger Hammond and in gratitude married him.
With more talk than action, it moves at a slow pace until its action-packed showdown at the climax. Nevertheless it’s not an awful film, even if it’s only a passable one. It’s uplifted by its visual aesthetics, capturing how solitary life was on the prairie.
REVIEWED ON 4/22/2025 GRADE: B-
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