Seraphim Falls (2006) - Great stars Neeson/Brosnan command striking revenge western

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Revenge Movie of the Year

The two stars look dangerous on this simple - bordering on uninspired - poster for David Von Ancken's Seraphim Falls

 
A man and his posse are hunting another man through various landscapes, both of them carrying a heavy heritage in the recent horrors of the American Civil War.


Seraphim Falls is written by Abby Everett Jaques and co-writer/director David Von Ancken (Box Suite (1997)).
It is a really good western with handsome photography (by John Toll (Jack (1996)) that's full of highly saturated images with striking colors.
Liam Neeson (Taken 2 (2012)) and Pierce Brosnan (The Match (1999)) are both excellent in the leads, and they enjoy the help of a strong supporting cast that among others features Tom Noonan (The Pledge (2001)) and Anjelica Huston (50/50 (2011)) in a mysterious devil-in-the-desert role.
Maybe due to the introvert nature of the two leading characters, Seraphim Falls never becomes a grand emotional journey or the most memorable of westerns. But it runs well on its simple, very well done hunting/revenge plot; it has a great ending plus an inventive use of animal stomachs.

 

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Brosnan is interviewed about the film here

Cost: Reportedly 18 mil. $
Box office: 1.2 mil. $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.06 times its cost)
[Seraphim Falls premiered 13 September (Toronto International Film Festival, Ontario) and runs 115 minutes. Richard Gere dropped out in the part played by Brosnan. Shooting took place in Oregon, California, Arizona and New Mexico for 48 days from October 2005 - January 2006. The film opened #42 to a 155k $ first weekend in 55 theaters in North America, where it only diminished from there, grossing tiny 418k $ (34.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 236k $ (19.7 %) and Mexico with 151k $ (12.6 %). Von Ancken has not returned to cinemas since, but he has been and is a prolific TV director. Neeson returned in Taken (2008); Brosnan in Shattered (2007). Seraphim Falls is rotten at 55 % with a 5.71/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Seraphim Falls?