Martin McDonagh’s comedy is laugh-out-loud funny, to be sure. But there’s always a method to it.
In The Lonesome West, McDonagh layers hilarity over a mano-a-mano feud that in real life and real time would induce stress, not belly laughs. The Connor Brothers, Coleman (Matthew J. Keenan) and Valene (Bradley Foster Smith), may seem bumbling buffoons, but make no mistake: they are trigger-happy foes with enough fistfuls of resentment to shoot to kill.
McDonagh scripts their savage and macabre verbal sparring. Director Mark A. Rhea paces each round with knockout punch. Keenan and Smith play high-risk foils as if on a high-tension high wire. And Casey Kaleba tightly stages each fight with a startling mix of hostility and silliness … The Lonesome West is a fantastic ride.
