An Irish undertaker profits when outlaws take over a peaceful American frontier town, but his family comes under threat as the death toll rises.
“Never Grow Old” takes place in the harsh American frontier landscape of 1849. Patrick Tate (Emile Hirsch), a quiet and restrained Irish immigrant who met his wife Audrey (Déborah François), a French immigrant, on their way to California, now have two young children, Emma (Molly McCann) and Thomas (Quinn Topper Marcus) and have settled in the small town of Garlow, located on the California Trail. Patrick is a carpenter and the town undertaker and ever since the town’s pastor, Preacher Pike (Danny Webb), took charge and closed the hotel and rid the town of alcohol and prostitution, Patrick’s livelihood has suffered. He dreams of fulfilling his desire to move to California with his family but Audrey has no desire to do so, she is content where she is.
When outlaw Dutch Albert (John Cusack) and two of his henchmen arrive in town trying to track down a former friend who stole from him, he comes across Patrick and demands his assistance in locating his former friend’s house. After questioning his wife as to his current whereabouts, only to be told he no longer lives there, he makes his way back into town with Patrick. When Patrick tells him that the town’s pastor shut down the hotel and outlawed liquor, Dutch pays the hotel owner $1,000 for the building and reopens it, filling it with liquor and women, much to Preacher Pike’s chagrin. Over time, men are killed in bar fights and shootouts and as a result, Patrick’s business gradually begins to pick up again.
As Patrick watches the town he once loved turn into a cesspool of murderers and prostitution with the death toll rising daily, he is torn between making good money for his family and moving out to California. While he himself is no killer, the fact that he continues to wait around for the next death begins to weigh heavily on him as he feels like an accomplice to murder. After one of Dutch’s henchmen attacks Audrey in town and she threatens to move to California with their kids and without him if he so chooses to stay, Patrick must finally make a decision, run away with his tail between his legs or stand up to the man who has turned his town, and home, upside down.
“Never Grow Old” is exceedingly slow-moving, so much so that occasionally, it almost feels like time itself has stopped but then director Ivan Kavanagh steps in and infuses it with a bloody good shootout and reinvigorates the movie again, at least until the next lull. When you think of westerns, you automatically think of sun-filled skies and mountainous terrain but here, director Ivan Kavanagh saturates the film with gloomy grey skies and constant rainy downpours that bear more resemblance to Ireland than the United States. Its constant bleak and heavy-handed narrative allow for no humorous moments whatsoever and in a somber story such as this, moments of levity are required in order to relieve the tension.
Cinematographer Piers McGrail paints every scene with majestic brushstrokes, lovingly framing every shot and filling them with evocative atmosphere, accompanied by a captivating visual style. While the movie’s storyline, characters, and locales all feel authentic, the pace at which they and the script move along, is, sadly, what brings the film down. At a livelier stride, and with some much-needed humor, we would actually care more for Patrick and the predicaments he constantly finds himself in, as it stands, he spends more time thinking about them than actually doing anything about them. Only in the last scene does Patrick and the movie really come to life but by then, it’s too little too late.
Available on Blu-ray™ (plus Digital), DVD, and Digital May 14th
