Those wondering where the heck Viggo Mortensen has been for the
last few years can relax. He's still out there making movies, just not anything
you're likely to find at a multiplex. Mortensen shows his multilingual skills
in David Oelhoffen's Far
from Men, a compelling but slow-moving adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning
author Albert Camus' short story, "The Guest". Set during the Algerian
War for Independence in 1954, the film explores the unexpected friendship
between an Algerian schoolteacher and an Arabic convict, but the real language
is the commonality between men whose lives have been ripped apart by conflict.
Mortensen plays Daru, a teacher whose
school is so remote it must have been deliberate. Daru is looking for a place
away from the outside world, where the native Algerians are at war fighting
against colonial rule. A war veteran with no desire to be part of the anymore violence,
Daru nonetheless sees the conflict literally arrive at his doorstep. A local
officer shows up and commands Daru to escort Mohamed (Reda Kateb), a man
charged with murdering his cousin, to a nearby city where he'll likely face
execution. Daru wants no part of it, but out of some sense of ethical duty,
reluctantly agrees.
While Oelhoffen is clearly interested in
exploring the dynamics of the Algerian War, the film works best when embracing
the style of classic American Westerns. The journey Daru and Mohamed undertake
has gunfights, standoffs, moral dilemmas, and an entire mountain's worth of
stoic heroism. Daru is a man ruled by his straight-arrow moral compass, which
more often than not gets in the way of his task. Their captor/prisoner relation
between them begins to fade during their mountainous journey, avoiding search
parties and encountering soldiers on both sides of the war. The path their
friendship takes is a familiar one, and the film takes time to comment on the
price of war and whether things such as loyalty and morality can exist in the
midst of endless bloodshed.
Attempting to expand Camus' rather lean
short proves to be a hurdle Oelhoffen can't completely overcome. The
characterizations of both men are lacking, which is unfortunate given they are
really the only two people we follow for any length of time. While Mohamed is a
sympathetic figure, Oelhoffen goes to greater lengths than Camus to prove how
good of a man he truly is. Both men are shown to be fundamentally decent, which
sucks away any tension between them. That the film is plodding and inherently
episodic, moving from one dangerous encounter to the next without much
distinction, Far from Home will be a tough experience for those who aren't
interested in the Algerian conflict. Mortensen, speaking fluent French
and Arabic, brings his usual rugged soulfulness. Kateb, who some will remember
from A Prophet and Zero Dark Thirty, also delivers
a quietly sensitive performance. Most surprising is Nick Cave and Warren Ellis'
forgettable score, given their terrific work on Westerns such as The Proposition and The Assassination of Jesse James.
Far from Men is ultimately a film that will appeal to
only a select few, but those few will probably love it. While it brings a Euro
sensibility to many Western tropes, the film isn't exciting enough or deep
enough to fully satisfy fans of either.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5