Seraphim Falls

In the opening moments of Seraphim Falls, Gideon (Pierce Brosnan), a bearded figure in the snowy mountains, takes a bullet from the gun of Colonel Morsman (Liam Neeson). After quickly rolling down the mountain, Gideon tumbles into a stream, lunges over a waterfall, then crawls out of the freezing water. He builds a fire, slowly digs the bullet out with a knife, then treats us to the cauterizing of his wound. It's a sequence to rival Mel Gibson's fetishizing self-mutilation in Braveheart.

Seraphim Falls is a sanctimoniously violent western about retribution and forgiveness with obvious Biblical overtones, references and names. Job is one of the few designations that doesn't come up — although one needs his patience to sit through this drivel. As the man who carries the huge grudge, Neeson gives a dull stoic performance. And, as the man with the guilty past, Brosnan forgoes his sleek handsomeness for a mask of pain that he wears like it was a warm blanket. Anjelica Huston turns up later as the Medicine Woman of the Desert, but nothing she has could ever cure this movie's ills. Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Anjelica Huston and Angie Harmon
Director: David Von Ancken
Screenwriters: David Von Ancken and Abby Everett Jaques
Producers: Bruce Davey and David Flynn
Genre: Drama
Rating: Rated R for violence and brief language
Running time: 115 min.
Release date: January 26, 2007