A poem of the heart and landscape of the Texas Hill Country, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is every bit as beautiful as its title implies. Playing off the natural sounds of the winds through the prairies, the film takes a simplistic look at outlaw Bob Muldoon (played brilliantly by Casey Affleck) and his sacrificial love for his wife Ruth Guthrie (played by Rooney Mara). After a deadly shootout in a robbery gone wrong, Bob spends the next four years of his life in prison, atoning for the one time mistake his pregnant wife made in an attempt to protect her meager homestead.
The sparse dialogue might make some people nervous but when it comes down to it, what they have to say makes them poignantly human and beautifully tragic. Spurned by their need to make a better life, love is something that exists without question and the spotted music of rhythmic clapping frames the timelessness of a 1970’s small town, USA. There is no such thing as a happy ending and director David Lowery places the consequences of romance and reality against each other in a desperate battle of needs and desires. Completely encapsulated by the tragedy of their situation, you can’t help but see yourself at different stages of your own love life and the tribulations that accompany moving on. At four out of five stars, this film will bring you cinematic nostalgia against a back splash of modernity.
