‘The Dead Don’t Hurt’ Review: Viggo Mortensen Disappears From His Own Western for a Spell, Letting Vicky Krieps Lead
variety.comPeter Debruge Chief Film Critic From the second scene of Mortensen’s second feature, “The Dead Don’t Hurt” (following 2020’s excellent father-son drama “Following”), audiences know the fate of Vivienne LeCoudy (Vicky Krieps).
A resilient French Canadian pioneer woman left alone for years, Vivienne dies at home in bed, a single tear making tracks on her dusty cheek.
For no good reason, Mortensen opts to tell her story out of order, flashing back to Vivienne’s childhood (to show the character-defining disappearance of her fur-trapper father) and carrying on past her death to reveal whether her absentee partner (played by Mortensen) manages to avenge what happened to her.
That nonlinear narrative choice in an otherwise understated art-house Western serves to confuse more than it reveals, complicating things for the meat-and-potatoes crowd that regularly turn out for cowboy stories.
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