Michael Fassbender joins Ben Mendelsohn and Kodi Smit-McPhee in a weirdly interesting take on the Wild West

FILM REVIEW: Aussies Kodi Smit-McPhee and Ben Mendelsohn, in a fur coat that deserves its own postcode, help make Slow West an acquired but interesting taste.

Stills from the film 'Slow West' Photo supplied

Slow West (M)

Director: John Maclean (feature debut)

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Mendelsohn, Caren Pistorius.

Rating: ***1/2

No country for young men

A CASUAL weirdness. A wisened grasp of when to embrace or reject a cliche. A quintet of ripping performances. These are the calling cards of this odd, funny and compelling western.

The accomplished young Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee stars as Jay, a hopelessly romantic teen with plenty of money in his pocket, and few clues in his head.

This would explain why, in the late 1800s, Jay has left a life of comfort in his native Scotland to comb the badlands of Colorado in search of his great lost love, Rosie (Caren Pistorius).

Our naive hero’s crafty chaperone-slash-guide-slash-bodyguard, Silas (Michael Fassbender) has his work cut out for him.

Wild, wild west ... Michael Fassbender in Slow West. Picture: Supplied

Especially when the pair keep crossing paths with the baddest hombre in them there parts (Ben Mendelsohn in a massive fur coat that needs its own postcode).

The four lead actors here (including Pistorius, yet another local rising star we’ll be seeing a lot more of in the future) are all on the same refined wavelength, and often save Slow Westfrom giving in to its most obscure urges.

However, the group’s fine performances are surpassed by that of rural New Zealand, playing the Wild West most convincingly indeed.

Definitely an acquired taste, but plenty of vivid flavours await if your palate responds.

Coat tales ... Ben Mendelsohn’s attire deserves its own postcode. Picture: Supplied

Originally published as Michael Fassbender joins Ben Mendelsohn and Kodi Smit-McPhee in a weirdly interesting take on the Wild West