Peter Dinklage Leads a Fascinating Ensemble into a Bleak Adaptation of Joe R. Lansdale’s Western Tale
DIRECTED BY ELLIOTT LESTER/2024
Like many who read Joe R. Lansdale’s The Thicket, I hoped the oddball western would get into Peter Dinklage’s hands. The story of a young man who travels through the wilderness with a sharp shooting little person bounty hunter, a former slave, young prostitute, and massive hog to rescue his kidnapped sister is full of action and humor with quirky characters and world building only Lansdale can pull off. Many fans of the author rejoiced when we heard the actor acquired the novel. Then we wondered if they could pull it off.
The film begins much like the book. Brother and sister Jack and Lulu (Levon Hawke and Esme Creed-Miles) leave their farm with their grandfather leave their home in the 1910s after their parents die of smallpox. At a ferry crossing they meet up with Cut Throat Bill (Juliette Lewis in a gender divergent from the book) and her gang. Director Elliott Lester and editor Jean-Christopher Bouzy artfully build the tension that explodes into an act of violence that knocks Jack out, kills the grandfather, and gets Lulu abducted.
Jack wanders into the nearest town where he rounds up grave digger and tracker Eustace (Gbenga Akinnagbe) and Reginald Jones (Dinklage), a former circus performer turned bounty hunter, who refuses to go by “shorty” as he does in the novel. As they hunt down Bill and the other outlaws, they take on a few more misfits, including Jimmie Sue (Leslie Grace), a prostitute Jack falls for and a gunman sent by another party to kill Reginald. Sadly, there is no hog.
Lester. along with cinematographer Guillermo Garza, create a harsh land they travel. Other than a few motorized items, our heroes up against a wild west wilderness. You feel the cold with it’s slate gray skies, charcoal colored trees, and snow, it reinforces the harsh danger in and the need for a home that each character deals with.
The director and writer Chris Kelly take their cues from spaghetti westerns. Before COVID shut down the original shoot, the initial production location was Spain where many of those films where filmed. Much of the humor and the romantic aspects of the book have been drained from the story with a brutality to the violence and dialogue. The shootouts convey anxiety more than rousing thrills. It leans more into the gothic elements of Lansdale’s intentions.
The film excels in its performances. Levon Hawke portrays a level naivete Jack sheds without losing a core understanding of right, wrong, and how we should live with one another that effects the others. Leslie Grace works as the frayed love interest learning to understand what it is like to be cared for. She has wonderful moment where Jimmie Sue stands up to Reginald. I wish there was more of Akinnagbe’s Eustace, but brings a dignity and heart to the character that allows us to buy his friendship with Jones. Even Metallica’s James Hetfield has a good turn as a gunman.
The two stand outs are Dinklage and Lewis. You can see this was a part tailored for Dinklage. He gives the diminutive badass a touch of rough class to represent the chip on his shoulder. He si a man whose bad luck since birth has created a blunt cunning to turn a situation near his favor, even if it isn’t always by the rules. Juliette Lewis appears to be channeling her character actor father, Geoffery Lewis, in the way she keeps her character grounded, even while chewing the scenery. She plays the scars on her character’s face with a low, coarse drawl. She takes this broad villain and finds the motivation and understanding between the lines. It creates an interesting relationship Bill has with her captive Lulu. A scene in a saloon where Reginald and Bill size each other up is tense, chilling and human.
The makers of The Thicket have taken the source material to create a bleaker tale. It seems to be a crime in this century to have a fun western. Still, it deals with many of the book’s main themes of finding connection in a hostile environment in an engaging and emotional way. Still, I miss the hog.