La critique de James Berardinelli (2)
The movie opens in San Angelo, Texas during the late 1940s. John Grady Cole (Matt Damon), a rancher who has been turned off his property when his mother sells the land to an oil company, is headed south to Mexico. Accompanying him is his good friend, Lacey Rawlins (Henry Thomas), who shares his passion for horses and the outdoors life. Near the Rio Grande, which marks the border, they are joined by young Jimmy Blevins (Lucas Black, from Thornton's Sling Blade), who is riding a horse too good for his obviously impoverished background and evidences uncanny skill with a pistol.

Eventually, John and Lacey part ways with Jimmy, but not before he implicates them in a horse stealing raid. The two escape pursuit and find work on the ranch of Don Hector Rocha y Villareal (Ruben Blades), where their knowledge and easy-going manner make them well liked. But John mistakenly falls for Don Hector's daughter, Alejandra (Penélope Cruz), and, when word gets out, both Americans find themselves at the mercy of Mexican justice.
 

La critique de James Berardinelli (3)
At the emotional core of All the Pretty Horses is the relationship between John and Alejandra. As written, they are tragic lovers driven apart by prejudice and cultural taboos. Their enduring passion is supposed to provide the glue that holds the film together. Unfortunately, that glue is brittle and partially disintegrated. The love affair is handled in the same perfunctory fashion as everything else in the film - related in a bare bones manner that resists emotional involvement. In order for All the Pretty Horses to really work, we must have an investment in this relationship, but it is developed (and, ultimately, disposed of) so quickly and with so little romantic heat that it's difficult to care about these two star-crossed, doomed lovers.

La critique de James Berardinelli (4)
The most intriguing character is neither Joe nor Lacey - both are so bland that fashioning a story around them is a dubious choice. Instead, it's Jimmy, who is plagued by a troubled past and an even less secure future. He's an intriguing individual with a number of personality quirks (he's deathly afraid of being struck by lightning - so afraid that, when caught out in the middle of a thunderstorm, he strips down to his underwear and crouches down in the best shelter he can find), but he isn't accorded much screen time. Certainly, a lot more could have been done about his relationship with John and Lacey, since they become reluctant big brothers to him, but the movie has to rush *on to other things.

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*Budget oblige...C'est pour cette raison que le Cinéma -contrairement à la littérature-est un art de compromis