Viggo Mortensen in The Dead Don’t Hurt @TIFF2023

Viggo Mortensen directs this feminist western with one of the highest touted actresses in the industry today. The Dead Don’t Hurt stars Vicky Kreips who plays a French Canadian flower seller Vivienne Le Cloudy. She meets with Holger Olsen, played by Mortensen, in San Francisco. They both travel back to his hometown in Elk Flats, Nevada. Refusing to get married, Vivienne begins a life with Holger in a quiet but corrupt town.

While Vivienne grows flowers and waits tables on the side, Holger builds barns and things are rosy in the beginning. But Holger decides to fight for the Union in the Civil War. This leaves Vivienne on her own and left to her own devices. She has to contend with a corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller, played by Danny Huston, and his powerful business partner Alfred Jeffries, played by Garret Dilahunt. Vivienne has to watch out for Jeffries’ son violent Weston played by Solly McLeod. He aggressively pursues her but resists his unwanted advances.

Director Viggo Mortensen

What is unique about The Dead Don’t Hurt is that the film begins with the violent encounter between Vivienne and Weston. Very Tarantinoesque, Viggo Mortensen frames it to show the violent side of Weston. The audience begins to question how things developed. Just like many classic Westerns, violence is at the forefront of this film. Gradually it’s sprinkled with moral integrity and tenderness and the audience gets the answers that they want as the film progresses.

But what is astounding about The Dead Don’t Hurt is how Vivienne stands up for herself in a world with domineering and ruthless men. Especially in a time when women did not have an inch of rights under their belts.