Review: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

I was on spring break last week (which is a mystery because it recently JUST hit the spring season) and decided that I would check out the first offering from director Tommy Lee Jones. I had seen a preview of the film before and it looked decent, or at least better than the rest of the regurgitated nonsense filling most multiplexes. I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw the film. It offered something that most films forget is necessary, a plot. The film reminded of Lone Star by John Sayles. The pacing was the same and the view of the south was captured in a realistic and non-glamorized way. I suppose its nice to have people who look like actual people and not an Abercrombie model in a cowboy hat.
The story actually has a pretty simple premise. As an audience, we are first introduced to the deceased corpse of Melquiades Estrada and how he is discovered. Even from the beginning of the film, the dialogue captures the audience in a way that makes all the events and actions seem plausible. Tommy Lee Jones plays Pete Perkins, Melquiades's friend and confidant. His performance is one of controlled passion. What I mean is that the relationship between Pete and Melquiades is based on a friendship that transcends their differing cultures. Most films do not construct friendship as a theme. Friendship is usually a cheap detail and not a lasting bond, on which a code of conduct is established and adhered to.
Jones's character goes to extreme lengths to find out the real reason why Melquiades died. He discovers that he was killed accidentally by Texas border patrol officer Mike Norton (Barry Pepper) who thought he represented a "threat". As a character refers to Pepper, "That bastard is without redemption." His character can be seen as a temperamental brat. His wife Lou Ann (January Jones) is not much better. Her character is limited in the fact that she is seen mostly pining for a life of interest in the local diner. She is a full-functioning contradiction because she craves a life of travel and new experiences, but when those experiences do not meet her lofty expectations she becomes pretentious and callous. But then again how satisfied can she be if her husband pleasures her between commercials?
The film has flashbacks that serve to make the characters rich and vibrant. The love rectangle between Jones's character, the waitress at the resident diner Mariana (Vanessa Bauche), the town sheriff (Dwight Yokam), and the waitress's husband/cook (Richard Dillard). I found it particularly amusing that there was an obvious infidelity going on, yet the marriage could remain pristine. Even though her character was morally laxed, I found Mariana to be the most enjoyable character because she could shift her affections so quickly and transition so effortlessly between men that it came off as humor.
Once Jones's character finds out that it was Mike Norton who was responsible he goes out to get revenge/pay his last respects/fulfill Melquiades's last wish. He kidnaps Norton and takes him across the border to bury Melquiades's home in Mexico. The voyage is one of discovery for both Perkins and Norton. For Norton, he gets to run across some of the immigrants he had previously harassed (which is pretty hilarious by the way). Norton is supposed to learn a lesson but I don't think he can comprehend the depth of emotion that is necessary to truly express regret and remorse.
The central theme of the film is friendship and the lengths to which one person will go to preserve a promise to another. The life of being a ranch hand is one which isolates the self from the rest of the world. The film effectively displays the solitude that is generated through daily life. That is why friendship is a rarity that most take for granted. The emotional bond between two people is sacred and it is nice to see a film that captures this principle at its very core. All of the characters have their own qualities that make them dynamic. Those who do go see the film, please be warned that the body of Melquiades does decompose throughout the course of the film and it does get to be kind of graphic. Nonetheless, Mr. Jones does a fine job framing a modern western which still has roots to the classics like The Searchers and Once Upon a Time in the West and maintaining the general aesthetic.