I
loved it, too, Katherine.
It's a testament to the performances these two turned in that I went into it not at all into any of their previous stuff (I have always thought they are both grossly over-rated) and came out of it a fan.
They played the relationship beautifully. And Crowe was tremendous. He never once raised his voice, even when he was killing someone. His character reminded me a lot of Dexter on the show (that I also love) of the same name - in fact, I have to wonder if the creator of "Dexter" fashioned him directly after Ben Wade. The similarities in their childhood stories and the morality at their core are astonishing.
But as thrilling as it was to watch both of them (and it really was - so much so that I think I'll watch both of them again this weekend), the one who stole the thing was Ben Foster as Charlie Prince. I read one review that nailed it: "Prince's loyalty to his boss goes beyond propriety,
sexuality, and sanity. The kid (meaning Foster) is mesmerizing."
I tell ya, for my money, there was more exquisite homoerotic tension in this movie than in "Jarhead" ten times over. Between Charlie Prince's passionate, unblinking devotion to Ben Wade and the way Wade damn near seduced Dan Evans just by talking to him, I was in heaven.
This same reviewer, by the way, said that the actors in this one were "an improvement" over the original ones, and that's saying a lot when Ben Wade was originally played by Glenn Ford.
Some reviewers didn't like the bit of a twist (so to speak) in the ending. I loved it. I thought it made perfect sense. But then, I love "Dexter" (and for those uninitiated, Dexter is a serial killer who only kills people that are even nastier than he is - people who kill for fun, and he believes he is cursed, just like the "Hand of God" gun
.)