Film Review: Ain’t Them Bodies Saints

Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck deliver powerful performances in David Lowery’s gritty drama set in the rolling hills of Seventies Texas.
By The Newsroom
Published 18th Sep 2013, 21:00 BST
Rooney Mara as Ruth Guthrie and Casey Affleck as Bob Muldoon in Ain't Them Bodies SaintsRooney Mara as Ruth Guthrie and Casey Affleck as Bob Muldoon in Ain't Them Bodies Saints
Rooney Mara as Ruth Guthrie and Casey Affleck as Bob Muldoon in Ain't Them Bodies Saints

Bob Muldoon (Affleck) and his lover Ruth Guthrie (Mara) are bank robbers, whose crime spree comes to an end during a shoot-out at a farmhouse.

Ruth seriously wounds local cop Patrick Wheeler (Ben Foster) in the ensuing gunfight but Bob claims responsibility for the near-fatal shot and is sentenced to prison, leaving Ruth to raise their unborn daughter alone.

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Four years later, Bob escapes from prison and makes the slow and arduous journey across country to be reunited with Ruth and his child.

Rooney Mara as Ruth Guthrie and Casey Affleck as Bob Muldoon in Ain't Them Bodies SaintsRooney Mara as Ruth Guthrie and Casey Affleck as Bob Muldoon in Ain't Them Bodies Saints
Rooney Mara as Ruth Guthrie and Casey Affleck as Bob Muldoon in Ain't Them Bodies Saints

In the mean time, Ruth has raised their little girl and has tried to keep her head down, watched over by their neighbour Skerritt (Keith Carradine).

When she learns that Bob is en route, she’s thrown into an emotional whirl, which is complicated by an unexpected friendship with Wheeler, who survived the gunshot but doesn’t know she fired the bullet.