The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada -- anyone heard of this movie?? The high level summary is that director/producer/star Tommy Lee Jones is going to swim w/ the fishes until he figures out a way to make a coherent movie and not mush together two short stories (told in the vein of a New Yorker short story w/ the requisite obscure details, rambling narrative, and random psychological/spiritual metaphors).

Guillermo Arriaga is the writer (of 21 Grams and Amores Perros fame) and he certainly packs a ton of interesting ideas into the film, but what does it all mean at the end of the day? We look to the director and editor to help add coherency and vision to the enterprise but they unfortunately fall short of the goal.

As a result, what we have is a beautifully shot film (by famed cinematographer Chris Menges) and a smattering of exciting scenes. But Tommy Lee Jones doesn't leave the viewer w/ any clear takeaways. Ultimately, his film will slip out of your mind within hours/days b/c of this failure on his behalf. It's a shame. Maybe Tommy Lee will learn his lesson next time around? I can only hope -- we need some good westerns these days.