RECOMMENDED Simmering and brooding and hinting and teasing and taunting are not to every taste; some of the early reviews of Andrew Dominik’s follow-up to his thematically similar, but more jagged “Chopper” (2000) were dismissive, suggesting that the film’s reach exceeded its grasp at its great length. But beyond the melancholy, co-dependent relationship, filled with jealousy and resentment, yet a tacit give-and-take, between the famed criminal Jesse James (Brad Pitt, face quietly expressive) and hanger-on and wannabe Robert Ford (Casey Affleck, needy, ticcy), there is a beauty in this imagined nineteenth-century American west (shot in Midwestern Canada) that amply employs gifted cinematographer Roger Deakin’s superb eye for light and composition. “Chopper” was also about crime and fame and ego, yet “The Assassination” is about as stylistically dissimilar as two movies could get. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, who wrote the score for “The Proposition,” provide the requisite sonic gloom here. With the Sams Shepard and Rockwell. Political fixer James Carville is repulsive in a needless cameo. 160m. Anamorphic 2.40 widescreen. (Ray Pride)
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