‘Rust’ Review: Alec Baldwin Plays a Cold Outlaw with a Heart of Gold in a Buddy-Movie Western That Lopes Along More Than It Takes Wing

This post was originally published on Variety.com

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Baldwin, playing a grizzled criminal gunslinger who is also a caring grandpa, does his best to lend the film a menacing movie-star charisma. But as much as I’m a fan of Baldwin as an actor, he doesn’t fit smoothly into the period setting. Despite his repeated use of “ain’t,” he comes off as an anachronism — a contempo middle-class actor with a voice that seems too light and high (something I’ve never thought about him before), impersonating the sort of reticent man of few words that Kevin Costner can play in his sleep.