Killers of the Flower Moon movie review rating: Three and half stars out of five
“Coming up is the trailer of The Irishman. It is 88 minutes long,” Ricky Gervais, Golden Globes 2020 Awards host and comedian had joked about the Scorsese’s movie’s length. As several Killers of the Flower Moon reviews have pointed out, the movie runtime is no joke.
At 206 minutes, Martin Scorsese attempts another slow burn nonfiction book adaptation in his latest. Killers of the Flower Moon follows up his last – The 209-minute direct-to-Netflix gangster saga The Irishman (2019).
The discovery and the ownership of oil leads to the inevitable in human history – Men turning up for control, power and money. Wars, killings, more killings usually follow. Killers of the Flower Moon is an account of one such saga.
Based on journalist David Grann’s non-fiction book, Scorsese sets a honeyed western canvas background to the Osage tribe. In their discovery of oil, coming to great fortune, and how the whites gather like honey to flower gardens to sip off the tribe’s wealth.
What follows is like the opening Balzac quote from Mario Puzo’s landmark mafia novel, The Godfather – “Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.”
The main characters and plot
Naive infantry cook Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns from World War I to Osage. His uncle, William King Hale (Robert De Niro) is the local reserve deputy sheriff. Hale, acts as a friend to the Osage community, but secretly plans to murder and take over their wealth and property. An unintelligent Ernest becomes a pawn for Hale, as several murders shake up the peaceful community.
Performances, characterization
Despite a great degree of engagement, the first 90 minutes of Killers of the Flower Moon feels stretched like elastic in parts. The characterizations and motivations of Hale and Burkhart are an issue. In De Niro’s turn as Hale, Scorsese goes for casual irony instead of sending shivers down the spine. The approach has mixed results. The writing needed to be stronger on how Hale and his network of murderers pull this off.
DiCaprio plays the ambiguous buffoon. It is never clear how much of him is guilt and how much clueless, aspects that needed more focus. The De Niro – DiCaprio chemistry is woefully missing. The interplay could have been so much more crackling. These features make the first half not as much sharp and telling.
DiCaprio gives us a heartbreaking turn in the second half, De Niro’s part feels too underplayed and underwritten eventually.
It is Mollie (Lily Gladstone) who is nicely underplayed. She registers as the intelligent, diabetic and yet tender woman, who falls for Burkhart despite herself. Gladstone is hauntingly the face of the Osage tribe. She brings out a vulnerability combined with strength, is the moral center of this crime saga.
Brendan Fraser as the crafty lawyer, Cara Jade Myers as the alcohol guzzling trigger happy sister and Jesse Plemons as the FBI agent light up the supporting cast.
On Scorsese’s direction
Scorsese does reap from setting the ironical, casual tone in the second half, as things come to a gradual boil. The silences speak volumes, as does use of dark backgrounds and minimal lighting.
A field burning scene set to old country tunes is a cinematic slow burn master cut. Scorsese brings it home in the final hour. The conclusion is unexpected, old world yet poignant with an unexpected cameo.
That niggling feeling that the screen time needed trimming persisted. Precious minutes for the Washington D.C. story part would have added a greater perspective to proceedings.
Cinematography, background score, art direction
Rodrigo Prieto’s cinematography is sturdy and splendid in evoking the honeyed tone of westerns, with lovely minimal lightning for the indoor shots. Noted Canadian musician Robbie Robertson gets the right moods and vibes for the America of the 1920’s proceedings. Dante Ferretti’s production design is seamless and transports us to Osage of 100 years ago.
Killers of the Flower Moon reviews
Despite a snail-paced first hour, Martin Scorsese brings Killers of the Flower Moon home in the final hour. Leonardo DiCaprio is crucial to making Killers work. Tight, sharp and superbly balanced as the dimwit, DiCaprio keeps a clever moral haziness that keeps us guessing about his intentions. A second Oscar buzz in that performance? Maybe, with a big M.
Eventually, Scorsese’s sure craft and sensitivity to the occurrences, make Killers of the Flower Moon an imperfect but an undeniable big screen cinema experience. Not many make it like Scorsese any more.
