With Ari Aster now in production on Eddington and Kevin Costner soon debuting 50% of his four-part Horizon, it looks like the western is back in style just as the superhero craze finally fades out. Before those arrive, Viggo Mortensen is debuting his 1860s-set western The Dead Don’t Hurt, in which he stars alongside Vicky Krieps. Following its TIFF premiere, the first trailer has now arrived from Shout! Studios ahead of a May 31 release.
Here’s the synopsis: “Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) is a fiercely independent woman who embarks on a relationship with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen). After meeting Olsen in San Francisco, she agrees to travel with him to his home near the quiet town of Elk Flats, Nevada, where they start a life together. The outbreak of the civil war separates them when Olsen makes a fateful decision to fight for the Union. This leaves Vivienne to fend for herself in a place controlled by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller (Danny Huston) and his unscrupulous business partner, powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt). Alfred’s violent, wayward son Weston (Solly McLeod) aggressively pursues Vivienne, who is determined to resist his unwanted advances. When Olsen returns from the war, he and Vivienne must confront and make peace with the person each has become.”
Ethan Vestby said in his TIFF review, “The opening two shots of The Dead Don’t Hurt showed some promise: 1) a man riding horseback in knight’s armor, followed by 2) a long take fixating on a dying Vicky Krieps’ face. From there I thought Mortensen was maybe, as director, smuggling a surrealism and slow cinema inspired by collaborator Lisandro Alonso into TIFF-premiere filler. Yet that mystery and formal precision soon ends.”
See the trailer below.
The Dead Don’t Hurt opens May 31.