The Duel

The Duel never feels long, Darcy-Smith allowing events to build with a deliberate delicacy that allows the final face-off between David and Abraham to explode in emotive ferocity.

Pretty to look at, but the story itself is overly long and overly wrought, a flabby two-hour tale that feels about three.

"The Duel" has a few ideas and a glint of politics but is largely characterized by its perplexing shifts in tone and unpersuasive story turns.

Situations are not always convincing, and motivations are so weak that whole sections of explanation seem to be missing.

Blessed with solid supporting character work and several scenes of genuine good fun, the movie manages to make its nearly two-hour run-time pass by easily enough, but not so much so that the seams on this patchwork quilt don't still show.

Despite promising elements of mixed-genre thrills, the film is finally the underwhelming sum of too many plot devices.

Hemsworth and Braga make a well-matched couple as the forces of good digging into the townsfolk's secrets, but it's Harrelson who really catches the eye.

It's not entirely forgettable, yet in our current world where even big stars don't sell movie tickets, The Duel had to have something more in order to really be successful. The film is an unfortunate misfire.

Ambiguous in its morality...

Muddled, violent Western echoes Apocalypse Now.