The Dead Don’t Hurt review: A quiet Western with heart

Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt is a small affair that prioritizes romance and womanhood above violence and machismo. It’s a move that pays off, bringing about one of the more subtle Westerns in recent years.

Mortensen — who made his directorial debut with 2020’s Falling — stars in the new movie as Holger Olsen, a Danish immigrant living in Nevada, who falls in love with Vivienne, a French-Canadian woman played warmly by Vicky Krieps. 

As the two embark on their earnest romance, Vivienne is forced into a role of imposed domesticity as Holger then enlists as a Union soldier, leaving her alone in a town occupied by untrustworthy forces. 

Romance is an element often missing from modern Westerns, though — as The Dead Don’t Hurt proves — it can be a valuable and unpredictable lens through which to view the ever-expanding world of the Old West. Here we see the romantic bond between two older lovers bloom, lifted by a chemistry that swaps passion and drama for something much softer and more honest.

Falling in love with Vicky Krieps

Krieps is easily the highlight of Mortensen’s Western drama. As a woman who is able to stand on her own two feet, she rejects the courting of another, wealthier man and quickly finds herself falling for Holger. 

It is not, however, the result of female yearning and the desire for companionship that drives her — Holger is simply in the right place at the right time and slips into her life as such.

Krieps portrays Vivienne’s complexities and understanding of the world around her beautifully. As their relationship unfolds, Vivienne naturally becomes more ingrained with a growing domesticity. 

Even after Holger leaves and Vivienne is left to care for a homestead she never intended to have, Krieps keeps Vienne perfectly balanced. She is frustrated but uncomplaining. She is tired, but persevering. 

It’s a wonderfully undramatic performance that ensures the heart of the film stays with Vivienne. 

An unpredictable Western

The tale of European immigration is not one often explored in big-scale Westerns, but it’s an underused angle that sees the world through unfamiliar eyes. Mortensen does not allow this to become the central focus of The Dead Don’t Hurt, but it forms a backbone that shifts the worldview just enough.

Vivienne and Holger aren’t explicitly outliers in their community, but they feel as such. This is just another element that makes their romance seem all the more convincing and necessary, as they are surrounded by more stereotypical Western archetypes — the quick-draw hothead, the corrupt mayor — that remain an ever-present threat.

Shout! Studios

The Dead Don’t Hurt still remains violent, tainted by a dusty brutality that keeps a sense of danger looming. But it’s the yearning and the heartache that shine through. Thankfully, some of the gutsier moments still belong to Vivienne, reminding audiences of the way of thinking that some Westerns forget; that the West was won by men, but it was raised by women.

The Dead Don’t Hurt review score: 3/5

The Dead Don’t Hurt is a tidy Western that plays to its own strengths by valuing character and heart over scale. Viggo Mortensen and Vicky Krieps are sublime, bringing honesty and peace to the screen without subjecting Holger and Vivienne to intense vulnerability. 

This is yet more evidence that the Western is back, and is gearing up to be better than ever. 

The Dead Don’t Hurt releases on May 31 in the US and on June 7 in the UK. For more, check out our guide to the best Western TV shows, Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2, and our Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 review.