Directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, this is a stripped-down tale of a hard-scrabble cowboy rancher (Jones) who becomes close friends with a Mexican drifter named Melquiades. When Mel is murdered by an overzealous Border Patrol agent (Barry Pepper), Jones becomes obsessed with first of all finding out who did it, then trying to exert his own brand of Texas justice.
The "Three Burials" refers to the fact that Mel is repeatedly interred and exhumed throughout the movie, and the film is thus set up and the story told according to the three burials. Lots of stuff going on in this film. The story is told in a fairly non-linear fashion, in a sort of Memento-style yet not quite as manic. It makes it a bit difficult to follow at times, and the ending is kind of anti-climactic. Nevertheless, Jones is good (even though he always seems to play the same character no matter what movie he's in), his Spanish is very impressive and Pepper is excellent. Also a nice performance from Dwight Yoakam. I like the bare bones feel of the movie, and the panoramic shots of the Mexican desert give it an old-school western feel as well. One last element of the film is that there are some pretty funny moments, which was quite unexpected. I didn't peg this as having any potential for comedy when I plucked it out of my Netflix queue.
Overall, 3 out of 5 stars.
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