Painted Hero Reviews

Whatever magnetic appeal Dwight Yoakam might have in the country music arena doesn't translate to his dramatic turn in PAINTED HERO. Low charisma is just one of the strikes against this stroll through William Inge country--it also suffers from a poorly structured screenplay, soap-opera dialogue, and matter-of-fact direction fiercely at odds with the script's melodramatic revelations. Content with his aimless life as a rodeo clown, former buckaroo star Virgil Kidder (Dwight Yoakam) grudgingly gives in to the pleading of rodeo impresario, Brownie (Bo Hopkins) to book Virgil into a hometown appearance. As Virgil suspects, his reception there is frosty. Former main squeeze Katelin (Michelle Joyner) is still annoyed over Virgil's neglect of their now-deceased illegitimate son; the town's corrupt Sheriff Acuff (John Getz) resentfully lives for the opportunity to bust Virgil on any pretext; and Virgil's one-time rival, Roddy (Walton Goggins), doesn't cotton to Virgil's interest in Roddy's Lolita-like sister, Teresa (Kiersten Warren). Fancying herself a seductress, the wired and disturbed Teresa begs bedmate Virgil to lock her in his car trunk. When obliging Virgil finds her the following morning, Teresa has been lethally staked; the only suspect is Virgil. The politically ambitious sheriff, who is Teresa's uncle, orders his gung-ho deputy to gun down Virgil, but Virgil manages to escape long enough to lobby for Katelin's help. Disguising himself in the makeup of a different rodeo clown, Virgil stalls for time as the sheriff plans to arrest him in the arena. Instead, the sheriff's long-suffering sister, Sadie (Cindy Pickett), comes forward with shocking accusations: Sadie is not Teresa's mother but her aunt; Sheriff Acuff is really the father of Roddy and Teresa. Having killed their mother years before, Acuff murdered his daughter, Teresa, to stop the old scandal from resurfacing. His reputation ruined, the sheriff is trampled by a bull let loose by his infuriated son, Roddy. Cleared of the charges, Virgil blows town with Katelin. Whew! That last-minute outburst may remind the audience of the climax of a classic tragedy, but the film lacks the Greeks' ability to build their dramas to a crescendo; this corn-pone opera doesn't prepare us for its overwrought finale. PAINTED HERO repeats its protagonists' psychological war stories ad infinitum and bores the audience so thoroughly that the viewer becomes inured to the film's whopper of a deus ex machina. Because the conclusion's emotional extravagance contrasts so sharply with the laid-back presentation preceding it, the response is nervous laughter. Padded with rodeo footage and lacking respect for the viewer's ability to grasp plot points quickly, PAINTED HERO is little more than a feeble melodrama. (Extreme profanity, graphic violence, adult situations, sexual situations, substance abuse.)