LES COWBOYS (R)
Released By Cohen Media Group
Review By Jeff Sanders
Listen to the Velvet Underground do their cool, punchy life and loss tune “Sweet Jane,” and then listen to Cowboy Junkies reimagine it as a calm, sad form of female introspection. Even the words “la la la la la la” have different meaning in both. A good cover can take themes from the original and sing something new.
LES COWBOYS, the French-Belgian/English language feature debut of screenwriter Thomas Bidegain (A PROPHET, RUST AND BONE), is trying to be more of a Cowboy Junkies tune to John Ford’s epic THE SEARCHERS, although not without merits, this cover may be too quiet and missing some notes when compared to that western masterpiece.
Alain is a father who is terribly distraught and angered by the disappearance of his daughter Kelly at a Cowboy Fair. After finding out from friends of Kelly that she has been secretly keeping a boyfriend, Ahmed, he seeks aid from the police only to find that they are no help at all. Kelly left a note behind, written in Arabic, explaining her love for Ahmed, and how she wants to be left alone. She also suggests that she will send letters updating the family. Alain does not except this. As far as he’s concerned, his 16-year-old daughter has been kidnapped. He begins his search along with his young son, Georges. Alain, like John Wayne’s Ethan, is consumed with getting Kelly back. He will find her.
Whereas John Ford’s film took on the sentiments of an old America and commented on the dangers of obsession and the prejudices of the American Indian, Bidegain has set his lens on the western outlook of Muslim and Islamist culture, fanaticism, and a family’s disappearing structure. Alain’s family is further torn apart by his fanaticism to recover her. We see this fanaticism on both sides, as we learn that Ahmed has Islamic and possible terrorist ties. This in turn fuels Alain and Georges’ search, a search that will take time and lives, and will ultimately end up with unfulfilled answers for key characters.
Bidegain has fashioned a classic western set up, twisted it, and taken us on a sprawling search. Whereas many films of the genre are made up in the moment and place importance on specific details that will lead one thing to another and inevitably to the missing person in a brief window of time, LES COWBOYS quietly jumps ahead in time over the course of years. This is a fun technique from a talented writer. It’s a technique that requires the viewer to catch up and connect the dots. This gives the film a sense of urgency by only giving the viewer essential information, but unfortunately it does seem to leave some of the characters out to dry.
If I have any real criticism here, it’s that we never quite understand Kelly’s motivation. In the beginning, all is fine, but as the film plays out, we wonder why she never attempted to make much contact with her family beyond the idea that her new Muslim ways are preventing her from doing so. This does seem odd. Georges is much more fleshed out as a character. We understand his drive in helping his father in the beginning, then his active years-long pursuit later, for a better understanding. But what about their mother, Nicole, who just quietly gives up and becomes more of an afterthought in the film’s second half? She seems to have moved on rather distantly from the situation involving her daughter, her husband, her son, and an emotional breakdown. This is due to Bidegain’s time hopping and his choosing to allow the viewer to fill in the blanks. This is fine, unless we get the sense that the film is hopping over what feels like it might be a plot hole.
LES COWBOYS works better if we look at it as the subject of westernized views on a culture we are unfamiliar with and fear, but if we view this film as a story about family loss and longing, it doesn’t quite ring as clear, which is strange, because the longing for unanswered questions and themes of recovery after loss are ultimately what this film seems to truly be about.
LES COWBOYS is a good film from a talented filmmaker. He has played his cover song with a new perspective and given it a new, “la la la.” Bidegain has made a film with a western motif and hit the target; he just didn’t quite get the bullseye.
