Jane Got a Gun Review

Jane Got a Gun is a western time piece that follows Jane (Natalie Portman) as she attempts to protect her injured outlaw husband and the land that they own. She herself is apparently quite the outlaw, or at least it's mentioned throughout though she never quite does anything like that. Teaming up with her old lover Dan (Joel Edgerton) they go about setting up the property for battle while reminiscing about the past.

Luckily Dan is a gunslinger so he's well equipped for this sort of task and even gathers intel about their foes as the outlaw gang attempts to hire him to hunt Jane. The setup for everything is mostly fine as it starts off building towards this battle though I imagined there might be a bit more to it. Considering the length of the film they don't really do much aside from sit and chat, I'd even go as far as saying that Dan is the main character of the story as it mostly follows him.

I also found him to be the more interesting character as Jane was more of a love interest for the two men in her life and not particularly a strong character at all. Going back to the concept which was decent enough it just didn't do much along the way towards the well known big battle scene and even then it wasn't anything too unique.

For having such a big showing on this one you would think Jane would be a bigger deal though Joel Edgerton as Dan did a much better job with his presence throughout the movie. It also felt like the film didn't quite have much of a point and just took the viewer where ever it wanted to at whatever time with some flash backs. The acting was decent and the setting of the west was well done, but I wasn't truly impressed with any of the actor's performances here as I found them rather average aside from Joel's.

I did however find the cinematography was well done as there were some nice distance shots and the film itself looked great capturing the western theme perfectly. The big action scene in particular was well done looking great with a more tense style of action instead of a direct battle between the conflicting parties.

The Conclusion

Jane Got a Gun was a really boring film to watch that just didn't have much going throughout its entirety. The title character was particularly bad not being even close to the badass I had assumed from the promotional material and while watching the starting sequence.

They literally set it up with Jane taking care of her husband while getting mad at him for being shot up; she then grabs the weapons, loads the ammo, drops off a kid and marches to town. I was thinking, wow this movie is straight to the point and then it just went south from there. Wasn't that impressed with this movie, especially considering the cast which I usually enjoy in films.

Jane Got a Gun Review at Home with Blu Ray Viewing
Screening Provided by VVS Films

Rating Overall: 4.0