3:10 to Yuma (2007)

The Western is back, and it's looking as good as it used to.
3:10 To Yuma is an update of a simple morality play (short story, actually) by Elmore Leonard, first filmed 50 years ago. That film was a good western, too. I think this one benefits from better performances across the board.
What I loved about this film is that it had the look, feel and themes of the greatest of classic Westerns. In the tradition of the classic Adult Western, here we have a rancher who's barely keeping his family afloat who stumbles upon an opportunity to volunteer to help take a captured bandit/killerto a train that would take him to prison. Of course he does it for the money, but he does it moreso to reinstate his masculinity, certainly in the eyes of his wife but even moreso in the eyes of his son, who appears far more enamored with the bad guy than his own dad.
I daresay this is the finest acting performance of Russell Crowe's career. There's more than just sass in his Ben Wade. He's crazy smart, cunning, manipulative, and not 100% evil, though he claims to be. Christian Bale is excellent as always, too. My two favorite performances after Crowe's were Ben Foster as Wade's looney second-in-command and Logan Lerman as the rancher's ambitious son.
Fantastically acted, well-paced, and a film that has meaning to it. It's a film about being a man, about honor, about justice, and about thriving. I'm not sure if a modern Western since Unforgiven has been this good.

4.0 out of 4