Open Range 2003

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: The casting of this film may be its greatest asset: Duvall and Costner have the easy familiarity of longtime partners. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: There's a fine little western lurking inside Open Range: Too bad it gets drowned out by director Kevin Costner's pretentiousness. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: This is one of the finest Westerns since Unforgiven. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Has a pace as laconic as its director's screen persona. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: A strange mix of the grand and the hackneyed that it never really gets its bearings -- even though, at its best, it reminds us how grand, impure and potentially alive the Western genre can be. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: A ponderous drag. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Roaming the Old West with old hands like Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner is always worthwhile. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: A patient, suspenseful exercise in genre craftsmanship. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: A great and beautiful Western in the classic vein. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: Open Range is not in the same league with Dances, but this compelling drama stands on its own as one of the best films of the summer. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: The first two hours of Open Range are a great pleasure, and the final minutes come as a vague indigestion. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Costner shows an exacting instinct for how to build a shoot-'em-up from the ground up. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Open Range resembles a graduation ceremonies address. It's long, a tad pompous and sprinkled with occasional kernels of truth. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: A Western without irony or innovation, without any of the overt efforts toward 'revisionism' we've come to expect even from Eastwood. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: The actors are so good that you could almost live with the man's- gotta -do-what -a-man's -gotta-do excesses of Craig Storper's script. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Just about everything in this movie has its antecedent: a little bit of Shane here, a chunk of High Noon there, and so on. And yet it's all rather pleasing, in a regressive sort of way. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: A flawed but highly entertaining B Western blown up to John Ford scale. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: A juicy, character-driven western with a real plot that spins a hypnotic narrative. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This is a great two-hour motion picture. Unfortunately, it runs 20 minutes longer than that. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: An imperfect but deeply involving and beautifully made Western. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Open Range is a Western in which the carts pull the horses. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Costner is not the most exuberant actor, but, for the most part, that's an asset here. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: If the climax of Open Range is disappointing, the ending is almost intolerable, as the plot descends into a twinkling love story, and Costner reverts to filmmaking aimed at 12-year-olds. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: A movie that seeks no higher calling than to entertain us the way Hollywood used to. Read more

Time Out: Handsomely mounted, as you would expect, Open Range has a good deal to commend it. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: Open Range has too much of what its title portends. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Western fans with a hankering to see one the way they used to make 'em will get an eyeful in "Open Range." Read more

Mark Holcomb, Village Voice: Charley's crusty assessment of events -- 'Nothing that's been happening in this town is much of a surprise' -- is all too knowingly accurate. Read more