‘Jesse James' has powerful performances - if you can stick it out

Expect only one misty stagecoach robbery and little real adventure; this is no shoot-em-up Western. It is, rather, a movie that takes its time, draws its characters meticulously, and moves in measured paces toward a conclusion announced in its title. The plot is no mystery.

Writer/director Andrew Dominik and Ron Hansen, who wrote the novel of the same name upon which the film is based, are asking other questions, some about character and motivation and others about the nature of celebrity.