Appaloosa is a Western that tries to be square and hip, light and dark, all at the same time. Maybe it's no surprise that the results are mixed. Ed Harris, who stars in the movie, also directed it, the first time he has stepped behind the camera since Pollock eight years ago. He plays Virgil Cole, a roving freelance law enforcer of the 1800s who shows up in the town of Appaloosa along with his taciturn sidekick, played by Viggo Mortensen.
For a price, Virgil offers to rid the town of Randall Bragg, a sneering bully and killer played by Jeremy Irons in what could almost be a grungier impersonation of Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood.” Irons is enjoyably nasty, enough to make you wonder why no one thought to cast him in a Western before.
Harris, for his part, comes off as a classic sure-shot protector, that is, until he beats up a loser in a bar with so much more violence than is necessary that the film seems to be saying that this lawman is a bit of a sociopath, too. Harris's icy gleam certainly suggests it. The movie, though, pulls back on this idea, and after that scene Virgil is never quite as interesting.
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly magazine reviews Appaloosa.
Appaloosa is a pleasingly spacious piece of work, but for all its little tangles, it never musters the kick of a psychological duel. Renée Zellweger, as the peach-blossom-fresh Allison, is the most amoral character here, a woman who loves whoever's around-but except for her, Appaloosa is a throwback to the age when Westerns were quaint.