Mark Kermode reviews Slow West - from YouTube (2)

Slow West which is the feature debut from Peter Pan fan xxx John Maclean who's made a couple of shorts before with Michael Fassbender one of which I think won a BAFTA so set in 19th century Colorado although shot in 21st century New Zealand and described by its writer-director as a European road movie with fairytale inflections that is according mostly about young love so the story is Kodi Smit-McPhee who you’ll remember from The Road which I know... (yes!) it hit you very hard... (that was a cheery number) he’s a sixteen year old… (he was good though) He was very good he’s a sixteen year old Scot who is going to trek across America in search of his lost love Rose he teams up very early on pretty much by accident with Michael Fassbender who is a guide and hardened casual killer who basically says that he will help him find Rose for money but he has his own mercenary reasons for doing so and the two form a strange kind of odd couple link, one wide-eyed innocent and the other the increasingly paternal but consistently world-weary grouch.