The Thicket (2024)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Sticky 'Thicket'

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Elliott Lester's Western The Thicket probably could have used a little more space to dig a little further into some of its characters, but as is, it's a gorgeous, rousing movie, focused on two fascinatingly damaged souls.

When Lula (Esme Creed-Miles) and Jack Parker (Levon Hawke) lose their parents to smallpox, they prepare to move in with a distant aunt. On the way, however, Lula is abducted by the deadly criminal Cut Throat Bill (Juliette Lewis) and Jack is left for dead.

Meanwhile, two bounty hunters working as grave diggers, Reginald Jones (Peter Dinklage) and Eustace Howard (Gbenga Akinnagbe) find themselves on the run after a run-in with a local Alderman. Jack tries to convince them to help him get his sister back, promising them not only the bounty on Cut Throat Bill's head (said to be $10,000), but also the 700 acres he's set to inherit in Montana.

The reluctant team finds help in the form of ex-prostitute Jimmy Sue (Leslie Grace) and Malachi Deasy (Macon Blair), a man seeking revenge for the death of his brother. But finding Cut Throat Bill won't be easy, and when they do, there's no way of telling what she's capable of.

Based on a 2013 novel by Joe R. Lansdale — whose work provided the basis for the cult classic Bubba Ho-Tep and the superb crime movie Cold in July — The Thicket begins with an indelible image. Lulu has just picked a small bouquet of winter flowers when a strange masked figure roars by on a motorcycle, nearly hitting her.

Even though this is the Old West, motor vehicles are in the margins. As in The Wild Bunch, they signal the end of the wildness, freedom, and promise of the frontier as modern civilization approaches.

The two central characters here, Reginald and Bill, are also both approaching the end of something. Even though they're on opposite sides of the law, they're both tired, and both looking for some kind of belonging. Dinklage and Lewis are electrifying in their roles.

Dinklage wears years of experience and pain in his hardscrabble face and brimming eyes, while Lewis — covered in scars — rasps her pessimistic dialogue with hard-won authority. In one scene, when her band robs a general store, she gets a rare moment of pleasure looking over the candy counter for some licorice ("I cain't have no hard candy").

And director Elliott Lester crafts a glorious widescreen frame dappled in snow, adding to the sense of despair, but also a sense of beauty, of December. It would have been nice for the Jack and Lula characters to have been a bit more rounded; Lula seems to be the symbol of what both Reginald and Bill are looking for (purity? beauty?), while a budding romance is set up for Jack and Jimmy Sue that doesn't really catch fire.

Moreover, Metallica lead singer James Hetfield is on board as a hired gun with only a few scenes; one wonders if he'd signed on for a bigger role that was subsequently cut down? Regardless, The Thicket is an absorbing movie that Western fans won't want to miss.