Logan (12A)

TO struggle with one’s mortality, with depression, with the responsibility of parenthood, with the consequences of leading a violent life: these are timeless themes. But they’re not normally the stuff of comic book movies.

In Logan, such subjects are not just pseudo-profound subtext, they’re the meat of the film. And so the X-Men franchise, whose recent editions have drowned in special effects and mind-numbing narrative intricacy, is brought down to Earth in a very welcome and satisfying way.

This is the third X-Men off-shoot featuring its most likeable character, the indestructible and clawed Logan, aka Wolverine. Very few of the usual suspects are present, it being more of a mutant chamber piece than a full-blown symphony. And it’s directed by James Mangold more in the mould of a western than a superhero movie.

It’s 2029, a version of the future that looks much like today. A mutant has not been born for 25 years and those few that remain are in hiding. Among them are Logan and his old mentor Professor X (Patrick Stewart), holed up on the Mexican border with another mutant outcast, Caliban (Stephen Merchant), and in a very bad way.

Xavier has dementia, a poignant reminder that the mutants are, also, human, and highly problematic when “the most powerful mind in the world” can no longer control itself. The once immortal Wolverine has now started to age, is taking longer to heal after his frequent fights and spends most of his time drunk.

The pair are scraping by, Logan working as a chauffeur to buy medication for the professor and save for a boat that will lead them safely away from civilisation. But their pasts, or more exactly their genes, catch up with them in the form of a young girl with remarkably familiar metal claws, who turns up at their door in need of protection.

The first half of the film is set in an arid desert, which makes the milieu of Mad Max seem like a holiday camp. This sets the tone for the western feel, which is made explicit when the characters watch the classic Shane on television, whose story of a gunslinger who can’t escape violence seems to be speaking of Logan himself.

Aside from one great special effect, when Xavier has a seizure whose intensity seems to shake the screen, most of the action is quite conventional – fist and gun fights. Though of course the claw factor adds its own special touch, and is far nastier than usual, as the film works to be more than comic book fantasy.

But the emphasis is on character, as Logan struggles to do the right thing by the girl, when he lost all hope of meaningful connection years ago.

Jackman has always compensated for his character’s dull superpowers with huge amounts of charisma; meanwhile, he’s been flexing his dramatic muscles in other films, such as Les Misérables and Prisoners. He brings it all together here in a moving performance.

Alongside him, Stewart is fantastic as Xavier sways between delirium, sentimentality and hilarious passages of grouchy spleen, the bond between he and Logan reaching a touching conclusion. The fact that the villains, including Richard E Grant, are colourless matters less when the emphasis is on drama of such humanity and pathos.

Jackman says he’s now hanging up his mutton chops and claws for good.

If it were up to me, I’d make Logan the last word in the whole X-Men franchise. Sadly, if the money men are thinking of a their own western at this point it won’t be Shane, but For A Few Dollars More.

Certain Women (12A)

The great American director Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff) directs this small-scale but very affecting portmanteau film, comprised of three episodes in the lives of Montana women – a lawyer coping with a melodramatic client, a lonely ranch hand, and a wife and mother whose determination to build a dream home puts her at odds with her family. Michelle Williams and Kristen Stewart are among the stars.

Trespass Against Us (15)

Brendan Gleeson and Michael Fassbender are Colby and Chad Cutler, father and son gypsy villains, who are the scourge of the local constabulary. But when Chad decides it’s time to save his own young family from this criminal lifestyle, Colby is having none of it – and the Cutlers are suddenly far more likely to be undone by each other than the law.

Viceroy’s House (12A)

Historical drama, with Hugh Bonneville as Lord Mountbatten, who in 1947 was charged with ending 300 years of British rule in India, Gillian Anderson his wife Edwina.