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| Natalie Portman |
See Jane get a gun. Set Jane shoot a gun. See Jane kill a bad guy. But first, Jane must stop and ponder all she's been through. The sluggish, slow-as-molasses new Western "Jane Got a Gun" starring and produced by Oscar-winner Natalie Portman has been riddled with more problems than you can shake a stick at, with a bevy of directors and leading actors in and out of the movie since it started production nearly three years ago, then being delayed by the bankruptcy of its studio at the time, Relativity Media. Unfortunately, some of these problems seemed to have spilled onto the screen, as the pseudo pro-feminist, revenge theme (written and rewritten several times during the process) is hampered by clunky and uninvolving plotting that doesn't really pick up some energy until the last act. With help from her ex-fiancé Dan (Joel Edgerton), Jane (Portman) must defend her husband (Noah Emmerich) and family from a vengeful outlaw (Ewan McGregor) and his gang of killers in the Old West. "Jane Got a Gun" ended up with a decent director, Gavin O'Connor ("Warrior") and a talented cast that includes Portman, Emmerich, Edgerton and McGregor, though they're wasted under a ponderous tone never really takes full shape, as much of the backstory is revealed through some confusing flashbacks from each of the main characters. The familiarity of it all, not to mention that much of it's simply not all that interesting, adds up to a big disappointment, though Portman and Edgerton make for a solid pairing, too bad they don't have better material to work with. "Jane Got a Gun" reminds of the far more memorable (and not to be confused with) Aerosmith classic tune "Janie's Got a Gun"; the lyrics to that song include: "Janie got a gun Janie got a gun whole world's come undone..." Too bad the same couldn't be sad for the dull Western "Jane Got A Gun," as it would've been far more entertaining to watch had she, or anything in the movie, come undone.
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