Review: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

I was excited about this film after catching Tommy Lee Jones on Conan talking about this, his directorial debut. Jones is a rancher whose friend, Melquiades Estrada, is killed by a border patrolman. After a complicated series of flash-backs and flash-forwards, the story becomes one about keeping a promise to return Melquiades to his final resting place in Coahuila. I never grow tired of seeing the hard pastures of west Texas in movies. If you are a Tommy Lee Jones fan, you'll love this movie which is tailor-made for his weathered character. Barry Pepper and Dwight Yoakam are stellar as the patrolman and the indifferent sheriff. If you have trouble following movies that cut backwards and forwards in time, you might want to read a plot synopsis before seeing it.

On a go/no-go scale, I rate it a "go".