Three Burials

The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada (2005) tells an interesting story of friendship. The film starts with the discovery of a dead body that happens to be the titular character. From there events unfold while occasionally filling in back story with flashbacks. In these flashbacks, that could have been more filled out, we learn how Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones) met Melquiades (Julio Cedillo) and how they became friends. Meanwhile in the present time it becomes obvious that the sheriff isn't going to do anything although he knows who Melquiades' killer is.

Pete decides to take matters into his own hands and kidnaps the murderer Mike Norton(Barry Pepper). A unique journey begins at this point, as Pete feels required to keep a promise he made to bury Melquiades in Mexico in a place called Jiminez. This route rather than a traditional revenge motif was an interesting direction to go and also brought about the most bizarre of all motifs in a film like this, a sort of buddy travel movie for Pete and Mike.

The movie gets most interesting in the journey to Mexico and when it becomes clear that Pete only wants Mike to recognize what he has done and isn't going to kill him. There is also a bizarre moment when we find out that Melquiades wasn't completely honest with Pete. I'm not sure what its point was other than to provide a moment of doubt and hopelessness for Pete but it is effective and resolved in a very neat way.

There are problems with the movie but most are dismissable. There is a pointless subplot with a bored diner waitress and the wife of Norton, who inexplicably meets up with Melquiades at one point to no importance. The jumping back and forth from present to past at times was confusing because unless Melquiades himself was in the scene it was hard to determine if it was past or present. Still, the movie was very well done work for a big screen directorial debut for Tommy Lee Jones.