A riveting journey through Mexico

A superb independent movie with great performances by Tommy Lee-Jones and Barry Pepper.

“The Three Burial of Melquiades Estrada” begins with a man being shot in the desert of Texas. Melquiades Estrada is laying on a morgue table, dead from a gunshot wound. Pete Perkins looks at his best friend, saddened by his loss. We find out that he has made a promise to Melquiades, if he should die, to bury him at his hometown in Mexico. Melquiades’ killer is Mike Norton, who just moved to Texas from Cincinnati with his wife Lou Ann. He works as a border patrolman and is a genuine asshole. Both husband and wife struggle with their personal lives as moving from a city to nowhere has not been an easy process for them; Mike is acting overly aggressive and Lou Ann is immensely bored. The local sheriff wants nothing to do with the Melquiades murder, so Pete eventually takes matters into his own hands to bring justice to his friend’s killer. Pete kidnaps Mike and forces him to go on a journey with him through Mexico to fulfill the last wishes of Melquiades Estrada.

This is Tommy Lee-Jones first attempt at directing a motion picture, and he does so with excellency. He also stars in his own movie as the rancher Pete Perkins and was awarded for Best Actor at last year’s Cannes festival for his performance along with screenwriter Guillermo Arriago, who won a price for Best Screenplay for it. Both Tommy Lee-Jones and Barry Pepper are performing some of their best character roles of their careers as they take them into unchartered territory. The movie goes deep in terms of characterization, all the characters are very much interconnected in different ways, even though they might not have any relations. Many different themes are covered during the movie, and the way the script is executed is just brilliant. It all just builds up to a very memorable finale.