Mark Reviews Movies: OLD HENRY

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 30, 2021

The year is 1909, the tail end of the unofficial close to the era of the Old or Wild West. There's nowhere else in the United States to explore. The American frontier has disappeared, as just about everyone in the country is living somewhere within the borders. The claims have been staked in the territory of Oklahoma, soon to be made into a state. That's the era of Old Henry, when cowboys and farmers are part of a specific country and not of the romantic idea of the country, the old terrain has become a collection of jurisdictions for lawmen, and the outlaws are quick to be caught or long finished—either retired or dead.

Somewhere in that territory of Oklahoma lives a simple farmer with a simple life named Henry (Tim Blake Nelson). The man had plenty of jobs over the course of his life, but it's only in relatively recent years that his path led him to tend the land. That's all we really know about Henry at the start of writer/director Potsy Ponciroli's film.

He's the widower of a wife he loved, the father to an impatient and bored son, the brother-in-law to a fellow farmer who knows Henry to be a "good man" (Al, played by Trace Adkins, wouldn't have let the man near his sister if he wasn't), and someone who keeps a shotgun hanging from a wall. It's not there for show, but the weapon isn't there for sport, either. It's a necessity in this place, and he'll only grab the shotgun if it's necessary and only use it if it's absolutely necessary—no ifs, ands, or buts about the situation.

Henry is a firm character before we get to know him and even more fascinating once we really get to know him. Part of that quality is Ponciroli's screenplay, which gives Henry few words but plenty of little actions to define him. There's his skill at farming, as well as his devotion to the old ways (A tractor would get the work finished faster, but who wants or needs that?). On top of that is the pragmatism of how everything is done (Feeding the entrails of a butchered pig to the other hogs, the son asks if it's strange to encourage this kind of cannibalism, and Henry plainly notes that it doesn't matter to the hogs).

There's also the story's inciting incident of sorts, in which Henry, searching for the owner of a stray horse, discovers the scene of an apparent crime. A man lies shot and dying on the ground. A satchel rests a few feet from the bloody lump. Henry opens the bag with his foot and sees stacks of cash inside it.

It would be so easy, just to take that satchel. It wouldn't hurt anyone, except the guy who's already fatally hurt right there. Henry considers a moment—but only a moment. If Ponciroli's screenplay gives us the basics of this character, Nelson's performance does the bulk of the work, especially in this moment. He kicks the bag shut and lets out an easy but heavy, "Nope."

Obviously, Henry does eventually take the bag. This would be a very short and mostly uneventful story, otherwise, but there are volumes in that single, dismissive word—of knowing, almost certainly from experience, the trouble this situation can and will cause. Henry also takes the wounded man, in order to help him, and covers his tracks, as well as any sign that there was a man shot right there. An associate of Ketchum (Stephen Dorff), who claims to be a Sheriff from a neighboring county, notes that whoever took the satchel and the wounded man is about as expert at covering tracks as anyone he has ever seen.

There are plenty of mysteries in this humble tale, which progresses almost exactly as we might anticipate. Henry has the money and a man someone wanted dead in his home. Ketchum and his men, whom we first meet chasing and killing a man in cold blood, want both. They're either legitimate lawmen or criminals disguised as such, and Curry (Scott Haze), the wounded man who eventually comes to and also claims to be a man of the law, could be either, as well.

All of this makes for a pretty straightforward story of an extended series of standoffs, as Henry tries to determine who's lying, who means to cause him trouble, and how best and from what to protect his son Wyatt (Gavin Lewis). The man knows about violence and trouble, as a hidden chest with a pistol and some newspaper clippings shows, and he wants his son to have no part of that, if he can help it. He might not be able to under these circumstances.

Ponciroli lets all of this play out at a relaxed pace but with a genuine sense of encroaching menace. Dorff's turn as a villainous lawman or a dastardly villain is a solid reason for concern, and so, too, is Haze's easy charm as someone who might be on the level or a liar. All of it, of course, builds toward a standoff, not with words, but with firearms.

It simply works, because Ponciroli gives these characters and this situation time to breathe, to simmer, and to slowly reveal the actual story happening beneath the surface here. Nelson, that ever-reliable character actor, excels in Old Henry, though, as a man burdened by the weight of some past he seems incapable of escaping. That's enough for this character, but there is an undeniable delight in the moment when Ponciroli finally reveals how heavy that weight is.

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