Review: The Unholy Trinity (2024)

The Unholy Trinity has a lot going for it. First, there's Pierce Brosnan, who has matured into a character actor that consistently delivers some of the most interesting work of his entire career. Then there's Samuel L. Jackson, who seems visibly delighted to be in another western. Even David Arquette, no stranger to westerns himself, provides an interesting and unconventional performance. The natural majesty of Montana, with its snow-capped mountains and wide-open vistas, is a perfect setting for a tale of revenge and greed, with the seasonal backdrop of winter providing visual distinction from the many dusty oaters that take place in arid deserts and harkening back to such classics as Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller. 

Unfortunately--and it pains me to write this--The Unholy Trinity simply doesn't work. Many of the elements for success are here, but without a cohesive story, it never quite comes together. The plot of the film is confusing and needlessly convoluted. What starts as a revenge plot when young Henry Broadway (relative newcomer Brandon Lessard, who seems out of his element) vows to avenge his hanged father (Tim Daley) soon turns into a series of double and triple crosses centered around a stash of hidden gold. Within about thirty minutes, it becomes clear that we don't really know what motivates ANY of the characters, as they all have so many secrets that we're not even sure who we're supposed to care about. As it turns out, there's also a dangerous Blackfoot woman hiding out by the river, an angry father who is hunting her, and a deceased sheriff that is the linchpin of the whole story--yet whom we never see on screen.

It feels as if pages from the screenplay are missing. Think of the game of Jenga, in which the goal is to take blocks out of a stack without toppling the entire tower. That's what this movie feels like: as if scenes from the movie have been removed, leaving only enough support to keep the framework standing. Did the filmmakers run out of money? Did they start shooting without a completed screenplay? One thing is for certain: at a lean 95 minutes, The Unholy Trinity could have used more screen time to tell its story...but that would have required more story to be written.

Looking at the resumes of both writer Lee Zachariah and director Richard Gray, this seems to be the most ambitious project they've undertaken to date, and it's worth mentioning that Richard Gray is also an executive producer on the ill-fated Alec Baldwin western Rust. I want to champion this film because we get so few westerns these days, but its significant shortcomings in the story department give me pause. It's a beautifully-filmed, ambitiously-staged, and well-acted movie in search of a better story. The Unholy Trinity is certainly not a bad film, but it shows the inexperience of its creators, as well as its budgetary limitations. Recommended only for western movie buffs.