‘Old Henry’: Meat & Potatoes Western With Tim Blake Nelson Has Few Surprises [Venice Review]

Surprisingly,  in this era of revisionist Westerns, writer/director Potsy Ponciroli delivers a throwback in the form of an old-fashioned, meat-and-potatoes Western by-numbers with the humble ambitions that give it a B-movie ambience. The set-up is spare, and events are predictable; it’s almost like an exercise in stripped-back storytelling. The only odd thing about “Old Henry” is that it landed in the Venice Film Festival 2021 line-up at all.

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The year is 1906, and we’re in Oklahoma Territory, home to Henry (Tim Blake Nelson): A Man With A Past. In the present, he is content to live a quiet life as a farmer raising his son Wyatt (Gavin Lewis). Questioned about his happiness with life as a hard-working farmer, he gives the mysterious and worldly answer, “You will discover there are worse arrangements.” When Henry stumbles on a wounded man Curry (Scott Haze), and a satchel full of money, swiftly followed by a posse of outlaws led by Ketchum (Stephen Dorff), his tranquility is disturbed, and his true identity comes to the fore.

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If, like Radiohead, you long for “no alarms and no surprises, please,” then this is the film for you. All unfolds as if programmed by a Western-generating algorithm, for better and for worse. Fields of yellow wheat splattered in blood ripple in the winds; well-worn saddles sit on well-behaved horses, and all looks exactly as it should in this type of motion picture. Most thoroughly at home is Buster Scruggs himself, Tim Blake Nelson, whose double stripes as a Coen Brothers actor in “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” and “O’ Brother Where Art Thou,” proves more than the apprenticeship needed to be a star in this world. He is to the genre born, with his long character actor’s face and rangy physicality. 

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The virtues of this film stem from the authentic textures that suggest that Ponciroli (whose name even sounds like it belongs to a lone gunslinger) is a loving student of the Western. Dialogue is convincing, without being showy, with characters forever announcing that they are  “Fixin’ teh” do this or that. There is a satisfaction to be found in details like a secret chest full of clippings, ten-gallon hats galore, and the “pp-ching” of bullets flying. Action set-pieces are elegantly choreographed, and one stand-out moment can be filed away under “cool as hell.” 

Although there is much to admire on a technical and craft level, the absence of storytelling innovation gives Old Henry the sleepiness of a familiar lullaby or nursery rhyme. There is nothing sufficiently gripping in the mix to recommend it as an original property. Rather it seems to exist to fill a gap in programming for people with a particular taste.  There is but one riddle to be solved: who is Old Henry? Sadly, the answer is not thrilling enough to mount a film upon. [C-]

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