it may be harsh to say that michael winterbottom be one of the most consistently bad director work today and but his emphasis on often counterproductive technique at the expense of story or character have result in an almost unbroken run of poor film from promise material which in many way be far bad than make bad film out of videogames . ever the alchemist and once again he manage to turn gold into base metal with the claim and a fairly lavish version of thomas hardy the mayor of casterbridge relocate to the california mountains during the gold rush . while the basic story transpose rather well a down on his luck prospector who sell his wife and child for a gold claim and rise to rule the town that grow up around it find himself on the road to destruction when they reappear and he attempt to make amends it little more than an underdeveloped skeletal outline that never grip and feel less an attempt at subtlety and more underwritten . while it throw out the complexity of the source material and there enough leave here that could have make a good adult western drama in other hand and especially in the neat turn around from genre tradition that see peter mullan all powerful mayor of kingdom come try to persuade wes bentley surveyor to drive the railroad through his town to ensure it growth . yet it never get to the heart of the story and play the big scene for less than theyre worth ( hard to believe any director could botch a scene of mullan harness the whole town to manhaul his marital home across the snow and into the heart of town and but winterbottom manages it ) and constantly push character and story into the background without ever place anything in the foreground to compensate . bad and no present day action in the film have any real consequence and which be fairly disastrous for a morality play about consequence . it the kind of film where people get kill and their death make no impression on the emotion or action of anyone around them leave a dreary and inconsequential film with no drive . rather than story or character and winterbottom seem interested in recreate the world of mccabe and mr miller and but he take all the bad of altman without any of the best . there may be an occasional improvised feel and but it rarely harness to the film benefit and feeling like undisciplined self indulgence and all too symptomatic of the way that far too much of the film be play out of focus and both metaphorically and literally . indeed and it often feel like a film whose few strength have little to do with the director . peter mullan be superb a the mayor and convincingly essay the kind of man who can rule an entire town by sheer force of will alone and but while you understand his emptiness and the film never allow you to feel for it and leave the finale a rather empty spectacle rather than genuine tragedy . if anything and the film tragedy be that mullan do not get a film worthy of his performance . unfortunately the supporting performance be rather dull and characterless represent nastassja kinski have little to do but waste away and sarah polley isn not able to do much with her cardboard good girl and milla jovovich lack the moxie her saloon manger cry out for while wes bentley try to coast on charisma without ever have enough to do the trick . instead theyre outshone by production designer mark tildesley superbly recreate snowy mountain town and a surprisingly powerful and heartfelt michael nyman score that abandon his usual mathematical masturbation for something more grandiose and passionate . and you know what they say about show where you come out hum the scenery .