Pitt, toying with his death-wish like some private joke, is eminently watchable in a role with little developmental arc; while Affleck, as his unwitting nemesis, takes his own mysterious integrity right to the grave.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is the story...of the moment in America when myth was murdered by mere celebrity and we were left, perhaps forever, with only the latter's meager consolations.

Jesse James is that rarest of birds -- an art film with mass appeal.

The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford plays out like an elegy to a fallen idol whose worshipper has decided it's time to dismantle the pedestal.