Rust

There’s an elegant severity to the natural elements that share the frame with the movie’s characters, manifested in silhouettes against vast cloudy skies, delicate snowfalls, shafts of light in dark interiors and crisp air filled with smoke and dust.

The film feels even more grim because guns and their use for violence are the predominant motifs in this 1880s-set western...

The fact that Hutchins’ work here is the best thing the movie has going for it only compounds both the irony and the tragedy.

It can’t seem to make up its mind whether it wants to be a down-and-dirty indie film full of hard, real people or a Hollywood fantasy.

The Old West is a savagely twisted moral landscape: Good men might be mistaken for bad ones, and vice versa. The insight lacks freshness but makes for a reasonably compelling inspiration for the western “Rust."

“Rust” is a film that’s forever tied to one fatal day. It’s not fair or perfect but finding beauty amid tragedy is something.

Rust doesn’t reinvent the wheel or break new ground like, say, Unforgiven. But for an indie movie marred by tragedy, the outcome is sturdy, enhanced by strong turns by Travis Fimmel and, yes, Alec Baldwin.

Rust” makes for a passable Western sojourn that will forever be steeped in tragic ignominy.

It’s a sad irony that the best thing about “Rust” is its atmospheric cinematography.

In spite of the woe in its making, there’s enough beneath the surface of Rust to overcome its flaws.