Written and Directed by Viggo Mortensen | 129 min |  ▲▲▲△△ | Digital and VOD

A love story where in the first scene one of the lovers dies — Viggo Mortensen’s second effort as a director (he also writes, produces, and wrote the gorgeous score) is a graceful arthouse western, head and shoulders above the clumsy drama of his directorial debut, Falling.

The Dead Don’t Hurt‘s not-so-secret weapon is the remarkable Vicky Krieps.

She’s Vivienne, a Quebecker in San Francisco circa 1860, headstrong and opinionated. She meets Danish carpenter, Olsen (Mortensen, whose Danish accent is on point, which tracks since he’s a Dane), who she takes a shine to. They move out to a shack in Nevada where he decides he needs to sign up for the union in the Civil War — a strange twist — leaving her to deal with the unwelcome attentions of a violent man in town. In a later time period, intercut, Olsen is the town sheriff with a young son, dealing with a corrupt mayor (Danny Huston), and other local nasties (Garret Dillahunt, Solly McLeod) and travelling in the wilderness.

Going for this picture aside from that sterling turn by Krieps is an occasionally dry humour in the script and gorgeous use of locations in the thoughtful cinematography by Marcel Zyskind. What it has against it is an austerity in its storytelling and longueurs in the pacing, especially in a third act where suspense is much diminished by the very time switching that revealed the certain death in the opening scene.

Still, there’s a lot to admire in a western where the brutality of the frontier and its masculine rules are mostly a backdrop to  the sweeter story of two independent spirits and their relationship. It’s a serious and impressive effort for multi-hyphenate Mortensen. I hope he and Krieps make a romcom next.