Strange Way of Life Review: Pedro Pascal & Ethan Hawke in Romantic Western

This is a review for the blu-ray copy sent by Warner Bros. Publicity UK of Strange Way of Life, rated age 15. Directed and written by Pedro Almodóvar, and starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal.

Official synopsis

‘A man rides a horse across the desert that separates him from Bitter Creek. He comes to visit Sheriff Jake (Ethan Hawke). Twenty-five years earlier, both the sheriff and Silva (Pedro Pascal), the rancher who rides out to meet him, worked together as hired gunmen. Silva visits him with the excuse of reuniting with his friend from his youth, and they do indeed celebrate their meeting, but the next morning Sheriff Jake tells him that the reason for his trip is not to go down the memory lane of their old friendship….’

Strange Way of Life is quite a short sensationalized film, coming in at a length of 31 minutes. Setting out most of the basis of the plot within the first 10 – 20 minutes and then concluding in the final 11 minutes.

Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal shine in this stylized and aged ‘Brokeback Mountain’ romantic western/drama. One of the strongest parts of this movie were when both actors delivered convincing dialogue in tense and passionate one-on-one scenes together.

It’s a brief slice of time in their story; telling a tale of tragedy, heartbreak, trust, separation and Pedro Almodóvar conveyed this well in the script, however it’s a very generic love story.

There are some scenes that do contain a sexual nature, which seemed slightly dragged out. Although, the flashback scenes for these helped develop their intimate relationship further, for the short time with getting to know these characters. There’s also strong language, and injury detail near to the end, with a decent display of suspense during a gun scene.

The cinematography is gorgeously done by José Luis Alcaine, and the locations look fantastic!

Final thoughts

Although, the cinematography and acting is great, it’s likely a one-off watch for me, as there’s not really anything too memorable, or as interesting to bring me back to a short film about this Western love story, maybe if they expanded the story more, with a longer film length, then it could have been better.