Vague Visages’ The Dead Don’t Hurt review contains minor spoilers. Viggo Mortensen’s 2023 movie features himself, Vicky Krieps and Solly McLeod. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews, along with cast/character summaries, streaming guides and complete soundtrack song listings.

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Some people might believe that starring in your feature directorial debut is already an ambitious task, but not Viggo Mortensen. The Dead Don’t Hurt was written, directed, composed and produced by the American actor, and so he’s in full creative control, offering audiences a clear vision of his filmmaking philosophy, one that’s encompassed by a good measure of cynicism and a dark sense of humor that offers hope. 

The Dead Don’t Hurt is a romantic western, in which the United States is viewed through the eyes of two immigrants — a French-Canadian woman named Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) and a Danish solider (Mortensen as Holger Olsen). Both characters are steadfast in their ideologies and butt heads many times as the politics and domestic roles of the 19th century threaten the fabric of a shared life.

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When Holger first appears in The Dead Don’t Hurt, his reclusive ways separate him from a greedy family in the Californian countryside. This performance is not out of character for Mortensen, but it is most befitting to the cool and considered independence of Krieps’ Vivienne. However, it is Solly McLeod’s performance as Weston — the menacing brute lording over the town saloon — that stands out, as his slurred and threatening presence is not forgotten as violent bullies walk the creaking floorboards of the tavern.

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The Dead Don’t Hurt is as much Vivienne’s story as it is Holger’s. With Mortensen clearly following in the spur-clinking footsteps of Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog (2021), he understands that the contemporary western must go beyond traditional depictions of masculinity. Instead of chartering a course for warfare when Holger insists on joining the Union army, the writer-director leaves the audience with Vivienne to understand her day-to-day lifestyle through sincere depictions of threats faced by single women in the 19thcentury; a rare perspective in a genre usually filled with pistols drawn at high noon. In fact, most of The Dead Don’t Hurt’s violence comes not from firearms, but rather from nooses and corrupt men.

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To that end, any good western understands that it is as much an ode to the landscape as it is to the American frontier age. Marcel Zyskind’s cinematography captures the vast beauty of the land in The Dead Don’t Hurt as a harmonious relationship that develops alongside Vivienne as she charters her course in new territory. 

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Although The Dead Don’t Hurt’s story is equally gripping and unique (and the writer-director’s many filmmaking roles leave no part of the creative composition unattended), the non-linear narrative adds little to the film, as the structure distracts from themes of patriarchal violence, Confederate factions and corruption. Overall, Mortensen succeeds in delivering an intricate and often untold period tale. The Dead Don’t Hurt presents a window into the new filmmaker’s cinematic intentions, suggesting that moviegoers can expect thoughtful and unique projects on the horizon.

Billie Walker (@billierwalker) is a culture and lifestyle writer with bylines in Dazed, Them, Little White Lies and many more. Her writing often focuses on her main passion: horror. Billie regularly emerges from her terrifying comfort zone to write book reviews for The Big Issue and personal essays covering mental health and sexuality.

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