The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is not actually Tommy Lee Jones directorial debut, as he's already directed a TV movie The Good Old Boys. Although I haven't seen it I can summise that from this performance it might not be that bad.

The film seems to come in two separate parts, each with its own style. The latter half is a straight story piece following the journey to the last burial of Estrada, whereas the first is edited out of timeline order and complicates the story almost making it feel overly stylised.

It is quite difficult to work out which time period you are watching during some of these scenes, and nothing really to reference your timeline in them. At times you have to completely watch the scene and start to see the next scene unfold before you realise what period in time you were watching. This makes it difficult to follow and your attention is often focused on this and not the film or the characters.

However, the second half is much better and pulls back from this editing style, preferring to concentrate on the tale of the two leads as they journey to the third burial, and this is by far the better part of the film. It's here that you really start to attach to and understand the characters, and it was here that I really started to appreciate both Barry Pepper's and Jones performances.

In one of the first scenes with Jones I was immediately concerned as he barks a line at the camera in the exact style you'd expect from a less than subtle MIB performance, but quickly he tones this down, and by that latter half of the film he's pulling out a strong and venerable performance. The scenes from being drunk in the Mexican bar onwards are filled with humanity and flaws, and his portrayal of this loyal friend of Estrada is superb and engrossing.

It's also here that we see how good an actor Pepper is, although he does manage to pull out a few good moments in the first half of the film too, it's when he's powering out raw emotion during his trek into the desert that we are taken through a slew of feelings for the character, all the way to the final scenes.

I did enjoy this film once it settled down. The camera was always moving in some fluid way, the performances had humanity, comedy and some very poignant but quiet scenes to reflect on, then there were the strong performances from the leads. Even the corpse of Estrada was a key character as well and provided some strong scenes for Jones and Pepper to act against, it was quite convincing as dead bodies go too!

However at the closing credits it did feel that there were some unexplored themes and storylines. For instance the Border Guards and the Sheriff just seem to disappear from the film at one point, never to be seen again. Explained away by an off hand line in a telephone conversation.

There is one thing though, Jones has proved he can direct. If he'd just concentrated on one style of the film, either telling the fluid story, or editing the tale through differing timelines. He shows a fondness for moving the camera and filming some impressive landscapes, as well as pulling out some key emotional scenes.

He's also managed to make this film with a strong Mexican viewpoint in the story, the casting and also the music which is particularly enjoyable.

So if the first half wasn't so erratic in nature, and the style had been solely of the latter journey, then I think this film would have received another star from myself. Still he's brought a strong tale of friendship, loyalty and morality to the screen and shown that there should be more directing from this heavyweight actor.

IMDB Film details