In recent years, the Western genre has experienced something of a revival in Hollywood. While the genre fell off as the preeminent moneymaker for Hollywood after the 1950s, a number of classic Westerns have nevertheless been produced since then. Many of today's stars have revisited the Western, including Johnny Depp (Dead Man), Kevin Costner (Open Range), Mel Gibson (Maverick) and many others. Just last year, we saw the release of two brilliant-though very different-star-powered westerns, The Assassination of Jesse James and 3:10 to Yuma. The first title, starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, was a critical hit but a little-seen rumination on the beginnings of America's obsession with celebrity. Contemplative and almost poetic in style, The Assassination of Jesse James seemed more interested in tearing down conventions of the Western genre than it was in celebrating them. On the other hand, 3:10 to Yuma was a throwback to Westerns of old, before the genre became tired and ultimately self-reflexive. Full of action, thrills and psychological drama, the film was enhanced by dynamic performances by Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. In their own way, The Assassination of Jesse James and 3:10 to Yuma provide the two archetypes for today's Western films. The former is an academic exercise seeking to demythologize the West, while the latter is a revival of a type of Western long gone.

The recently released Appaloosa, on the other hand, falls somewhere between these two models. Directed by and starring Ed Harris, the film also features stellar acting by Viggo Mortensen and Jeremy Irons. Harris plays Virgil Cole, a lawman for hire who takes on the job of cleaning up the town of Appaloosa with his loyal partner Everett Hitch, fully embodied in Mortensen. Cole and Hitch work to bring law and order back to the town, which has been taken over by Irons' outlaw villain Randall Bragg. Complicating the matter is the emergence of Zellweger's widowed Allison French, who almost immediately starts up a relationship with Cole, though she also has a wandering eye. Allison is almost a direct descendant of the character Jill McBain from Once Upon a Time in the West, with all the same instincts for survival. However, unlike Jill McBain, Allison's apparent willingness to sleep with anyone is not just a means of survival but also a way of getting nearer to power. Allison is easily the most interesting character in the film, showing multiple sides and breaking a number of stereotypes of women in Western films.

Unfortunately, though, Zellweger is a poor choice for the role of Allison; to say Zellweger is miscast in the role is an understatement, as she never looks right for the 19th-century Western setting. She has none of the subtle style that would have suited the role, and instead trades off between reprising the bubbly cuteness she perfected in the Bridget Jones movies and the nasty drive for power that she embodied in her much more effective role in Chicago. While her part should have been the film's method of critiquing the myths of the female in the West, it instead ends up feeling like a missed opportunity.

Fortunately, the rest of the film is far more conventional for a Western. All the requisite tough-guy talk and epic showdowns are present, and in this respect the film does not deviate much from Westerns of the past. The gunfights are fast and exciting, and though the film never truly goes in an unexpected direction, it is still fun and familiar enough that this makes little difference.

Ultimately, Appaloosa is a film of contradictions. If its unique take on women in the West is its Assassination of Jesse James type of revision of the Western, surely the gunplay and basic law and order story mirror the Western revivalist style of 3:10 to Yuma. The problem is, of course, that though the film never fails outright in either of its two styles of Western storytelling, it is also never particularly successful at either one. Poor casting and an underdeveloped script lead the former aspiration to fail, and though the gun-slinging portion does better, it is not great enough to compensate for the film's shortcomings. In the end, though Appaloosa is still a good movie and well worth seeing for Western fans, it is nevertheless a film that never truly lives up to its great potential.