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The journey to Mexico begins
when Pete Perkins (Jones) uncovers the identity of a Border
Patrolman, Mike Norton (Barry Pepper), who has shot and killed
his best friend, Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cedillo).
Kidnapping Norton and forcing him to dig up Estrada's body,
Perkins straps the corpse to a horse, and informs Norton that
he will be traveling with them to Mexico. Once there, they
will bury Estrada according to instructions he gave Perkins
prior to his death. Jones paints Norton as a mean-spirited
individual; caught up in a loveless relationship with his
wife, Lou Ann (January Jones), Norton's day job frequently
involves him him either exploding in a violent rage or idly
masturbating over a well-thumbed copy of Hustler. The two men
don't exactly bond on their journey, the wedge that's been
forced between them being far too great for them to reconcile
their differences. But Jones coerces a riveting tale from
Guillermo Arriaga script, with a choppy chronology reminiscent
of Arriaga's own 21 GRAMS. Comparisons to Sam Peckinpah's
masterfully bleak 1974 movie BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO
GARCIA are inevitable, although Jones's film has a tender edge
that Peckinpa''s nihilistic epic was never quite capable of
reaching. A film that suggests Jones has a bright future ahead
of him as a director, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA
is one of the most absorbing pieces of cinema to emerge in
2005.
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