Jane Got A Gun is a relatively simple western, but its title requires contemplation. I mulled it over on the train home while eating some sushi. Have you ever tried eating sushi on a train? I\u2019d advise against it. I was hopelessly snapping at maki with my chopsticks while bouncing around on the fast service to Cambridge. The woman opposite me was visibly distressed by my haphazard application of soy sauce and wasabi. I dropped one of my sticks and watched it roll towards her, coating itself in the business day\u2019s grime. She dry heaved and then moved seats. If you\u2019re wondering what this has to do with Jane getting a gun, then you probably feel the same way I did by the end of the film.<\/p>\n
Jane (Natalie Portman) needs a gun to protect herself and her wounded husband from a gang of outlaws led by Ewan McGregor and his moustache. What\u2019s unclear is whether the \u2018gun\u2019 in question is referring to a firearm she personally acquires or the gunslinger (Joel Edgerton) she hires to do all the action scenes for her. Alternatively, she\u2019s been gifted it by someone for Christmas. \u2018Oh look, Craig got an Etch A Sketch and Jane got a gun.\u2019 Anyway, it turns out there\u2019s only about four people in this town and Edgerton\u2019s character is the father of her first daughter. She has a second with her current, maimed partner.<\/p>\n
Apart from setting up a rather awkward love triangle, director Gavin O\u2019Connor does little else to establish Jane as the protagonist. Flashbacks to rosier times are seemingly from the two male perspectives and when there\u2019s any hint of danger, she relies on them to come to her rescue. It\u2019s a feminist\u2019s film.<\/p>\n
In fact, Edgerton\u2019s character is the most layered, which I\u2019m sure has nothing to do with him writing the screenplay. While he\u2019s setting up Home Alone-style booby traps for their attackers, his emotional predicament is given far more attention than Jane\u2019s. He went to war and by the time he came back she had a baby with another man. I can\u2019t say I fully relate to this situation, but I once came home to discover someone had eaten my last Muller Corner and that was particularly distressing.<\/p>\n
When she\u2019s given the chance, Portman is ferocious as a pissed-off cowgirl mother. And that\u2019s what I was expecting to see: the Black Swan on a rampage, shooting holes in the heads of gingivitis-riddled bandits while screaming absurdities about Attack of the Clones. As it happens, there\u2019s only one real action scene \u2013 the one they showed in the trailer. Getting to that point is a bigger slog than watching the entire Star Wars prequel trilogy.<\/p>\n
Where recent westerns like True Grit and Django Unchained have helped to rejuvenate the genre, Jane Got A Gun helps it to slip back into a ditch. The film had its issues during production; a change of director and multiple alterations to the cast, but the biggest problem they faced was making the content match the fucking title.<\/p>\n
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