‘The Dead Don’t Hurt’ Review: Viggo Mortensen Stars, Writes, Directs, Produces, And Composes Music For This Uniquely Fine Western But Vicky Krieps Is Its Soul – Toronto Film Festival
deadline.comThe western genre has been so pervasive throughout the entire history of the movies, and it is hard to imagine doing anything in it that hasn’t already been done.
Viggo Mortensen, in writing, directing, producing, and co-starring in only his second film behind the camera (after 2020’s Falling) finds a moving, if tragic, love story to play against the stunning landscape of the circa 1860’s west, and somehow it all feels new.
John Ford and Howard Hawks would love this movie. The Dead Don’t Hurt is a title that promises something else, but without giving away spoilers, it ultimately feels right for this story of a Danish immigrant named Holder Olsen (Mortensen) who falls hard for a woman named Vivienne Le Coudy (a luminous Vicky Krieps) who he meets in San Francisco.
Wanting some quiet peace in his life they move together to Elk Flats, Nevada and start what appears to be an idyllic life together, that is until the ex-soldier up and decides to join the Union Army to fight the Civil War.
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