Cast out of her rich family home for having a child out of marriage, Josephine takes the road in the new west of America. When she is attacked and nearly raped by outlaws she goes into hiding, disguising herself as a man. Jo settles into a small mining town under her new identity but can she keep the charade up?
Based on a true story this film is a reasonably worthy story of one woman's life in the old west as a man. How close to the referenced `true story' this is, is beyond me, but I don't think it was that important as the tale stands up for itself without mattering how true it was. However, the actual delivery of the story here is all a little bit dull for my tastes. The lack of actual story beyond the `woman dressed as man' shows through, and instead we have (probably fictional) episodes from Jo's life the captions `months later' and `several years later' pop up at random breaking up any sort of narrative flow.
As a result I never really got into the film and it just didn't have a drive to it. The one line summary is worthy enough but it still needed to tell me a story and not just expect me to sit and go `wow, she lived as a man' all the way through the film. Put simply, far too little happened of interest and it all took too long to tell.
The cast is not great and fit with the inconsequentialness of the whole film. Amis is a bit bland in her delivery and her lines sound flat, in fairness she was trying to sound like a man but even still! Her looks are also a problem. Amis is a very pretty woman and it is hard to make her look like someone who could be taken for a man, a less feminine actress would have been a better choice for the role as it would have made it easier for the audience to suspend belief. McKellen is good but all too brief, Hopkins is an enjoyable character but has little to do, Chung is actually quite good and Heather Graham has a fleeting early role.
Overall the story is worth hearing but only as a few page story. As a two hour movie it drags and finds that it doesn't actually have much to say or do after the pitch is delivered. It drags through little scenes and dramas but overall comes out as just a little dull something more dramatic was required but is sadly absent.
Based on a true story this film is a reasonably worthy story of one woman's life in the old west as a man. How close to the referenced `true story' this is, is beyond me, but I don't think it was that important as the tale stands up for itself without mattering how true it was. However, the actual delivery of the story here is all a little bit dull for my tastes. The lack of actual story beyond the `woman dressed as man' shows through, and instead we have (probably fictional) episodes from Jo's life the captions `months later' and `several years later' pop up at random breaking up any sort of narrative flow.
As a result I never really got into the film and it just didn't have a drive to it. The one line summary is worthy enough but it still needed to tell me a story and not just expect me to sit and go `wow, she lived as a man' all the way through the film. Put simply, far too little happened of interest and it all took too long to tell.
The cast is not great and fit with the inconsequentialness of the whole film. Amis is a bit bland in her delivery and her lines sound flat, in fairness she was trying to sound like a man but even still! Her looks are also a problem. Amis is a very pretty woman and it is hard to make her look like someone who could be taken for a man, a less feminine actress would have been a better choice for the role as it would have made it easier for the audience to suspend belief. McKellen is good but all too brief, Hopkins is an enjoyable character but has little to do, Chung is actually quite good and Heather Graham has a fleeting early role.
Overall the story is worth hearing but only as a few page story. As a two hour movie it drags and finds that it doesn't actually have much to say or do after the pitch is delivered. It drags through little scenes and dramas but overall comes out as just a little dull something more dramatic was required but is sadly absent.