The Thicket

• Directed by Elliott Lester
• September 6, 2024
• Based on the 2013 novel The Thicket by Joe R. Lansdale

When a bounty hunter and a group of unlikely associates hunt a brutal killer, they find themselves in a no-man’s-land called The Thicket.

The setting of The Thicket is not quite the classic Wild West but closer in setting to the turn of the century. There are very old motor cars and we even see initially what looks like a first generation motorcycle. After that though it is largely horses and shacks. If you are going to set the era like that it should play more into the story more than it does.

The Thicket is clearly a revisionist and downbeat Western, but people aren’t hopelessly dysfunctional. The story starts out rather bleak. We have a brother named Jack (Levon Hawke) and his sister Lula (Esmé Creed-Miles) burying their parents who have died of smallpox just before they are whisked away by a relative to go live on some property that their dad owned elsewhere. Why not stay on the farm? Don’t know. You might need to burn the house (like they did) but building a new one should not be impossible. Problems begin when Jack gets separated from Lula who’s in the hands of an outlaw with a seriously unhealthy interest in the girl and goes to rescue her.

Cut Throat Bill (Juliette Lewis)-so named for a scar on her neck-is clearly the baddie in this. She is quite crazy. To partially quote the great cinematic thinker John Rambo “Killing is as easy as breathing” for her. Violence is her first and generally only option. So is turning out any thing she stumbles across and takes a liking to.

Juliette Lewis can do a tough enough voice by tweaking her natural state Here she chose a gravelly voice like some female long-haul trucker that’s had one too many menthols in her time. Did she gargle with Drano before each take?

How do Reginald Jones (Peter Dinklage) and his sidekick, former slave Eustace Howard (Gbenga Akinnagbe), get pulled into all this? Jones is a ditch digger or just a handyman who does whatever he can or a bounty hunter. Seems to be a little bit of everything with the only real fact about his character being clear is that he spent some time sharpshooting with Annie Oakley.

It’s becoming a bit of a cliché (usually used for women) in films where the much smaller person takes out the much bigger opponent. Some can sell it better than others. Dinklage does okay in the initial scene to show his toughness, but I think it could’ve done better simply by outsmarting his foes rather than beating a guy up. Not a bad scene but I’m just getting sick of cliché.

The Thicket is much more of the story of Jones tracking Bill than it is of Jack getting back Lula or even a sister surviving a psychotic sexual predator. Admittedly Peter Dinklage and Juliette Lewis are bigger stars but if are you going to have that at least one of the people who hired or convinced someone to help them in a significant chunk of the movie then it needs to be more their story.

Eventually a motley crew is assembled to go after Bill by going into the area that the movie derives its name from. Earlier in the film the man Jones assaulted hired a posse to track him down. All but one were killed by Billy and her gang with the remainder joining Jones for revenge. He just serves as fodder to get the ball rolling on the climax. The character never developed as an individual and their only purpose was to figuratively sound the alarm to the villains that they are under attack.

Peter Dinklage and Juliette Lewis are both fantastic actors. Her time with Lula was done almost right but Bill was too important. Jones should’ve been a supporting player with Jack being main for that part of the film. Jack does grow but by the end of the movie he is dead. Jones doesn’t change much other than getting a bit of a paycheck.

When the minimal cast gets to the woods there’s an isolated feel to the story. No help is coming and success is the only real option. The costuming is great. The clothing manages to tell a little something about each character.

The Thicket isn’t a terrible film. It just could’ve been better. It’s not a total disappointment and I could see myself watching it again. A better than most revisionist Western.