Ivan Kavanagh's “Never Grow Old” uses plenty of Western conventions and weaves them into a surprisingly original story that admittedly struggles at times to justify its hundred-minute runtime. The film mostly handles the escalation that needs to take place for the story to work convincingly, even if, at times, it feels like scenes are being drawn out for the sake of a longer film. The idea of greed being the driving force of events never really landed for me; instead, it just felt like Patrick was more of an unwilling participant than an active force. Emile Hirsch is very good as the meek Patrick Tate, even if his Irish accent comes and goes. John Cusack is the one who really leaves an impression as Dutch Albert, who is delightfully evil but may sometimes act as if he's in a completely different film. Déborah François gets a thankless but very important role as Audrey Tate, who is crucial for the film to work, and she delivers on that front. The film really falters in the cinematography. The film often looks very good, but during the night scenes, it is so dark that you often can't even make out the backgrounds of the scenes. Unfortunately, it hurts the film as a whole since so much of it takes place at night. There's nothing really wrong with the rest of the film; it's all just pretty good past that, but nothing in it blows you away. While I like the angle that the story is going, it doesn't ever lean enough into it to make it totally work. 

( the poster led me to believe it would be awful)

Ivan Kavanagh's “Never Grow Old” uses plenty of Western conventions and weaves them into a surprisingly original story that admittedly struggles at times to justify its hundred-minute runtime. The film mostly handles the escalation that needs to take place for the story to work convincingly, even if, at times, it feels like scenes are being drawn out for the sake of a longer film. The idea of greed being the driving force of events never really landed for me; instead, it just felt like Patrick was more of an unwilling participant than an active force. Emile Hirsch is very good as the meek Patrick Tate, even if his Irish accent comes and goes. John Cusack is the one who really leaves an impression as Dutch Albert, who is delightfully evil but may sometimes act as if he's in a completely different film. Déborah François gets a thankless but very important role as Audrey Tate, who is crucial for the film to work, and she delivers on that front. The film really falters in the cinematography. The film often looks very good, but during the night scenes, it is so dark that you often can't even make out the backgrounds of the scenes. Unfortunately, it hurts the film as a whole since so much of it takes place at night. There's nothing really wrong with the rest of the film; it's all just pretty good past that, but nothing in it blows you away. While I like the angle that the story is going, it doesn't ever lean enough into it to make it totally work. 

( the poster led me to believe it would be awful)