Justin Kurzels True History of the Kelly Gang has great performances and sleek style, but not much to say of substance about the Australian outlaw.

Ned Kelly, a figure of Jesse James like stature in Australia, is a mostly murky figure. He was a bushranger and an outlaw who became an icon in his home country as much for his helmet and bulletproof armor as his lawlessness. But despite various attempts to put his story to screen, its not particularly clear what his deal is.True History of the Kelly Gangisnt going to change that.

The True History of the Kelly Gang is director Justin Kurzels take on the narrative and hes done his damndest to hit the marks of successful modern sensibilities: Dark, sexy, queer. Nicholas Hoult even lounges menacingly in nothing but garters. But despite strong performances and moments of greatness,Kelly Gang never coalesces, and it never figures out quite what it has to say about its legendary protagonist.

The film is based on the 2000 novelThe True History of the Kelly Gang and thus takes its historical accuracy cues nothing you are about to see is true from there. The first 40 minutes follow a young Ned (Orlando Schwerdt) as he comes of age on his familys backcountry farm, his dad (Ben Corbett) a drunk, his mom (Essie Davis) forced into sex work, a British sergeant (Charlie Hunnam) always lurking around, before hes sold to bushranger known as Harry Power (Russell Crowe). When Ned later returns home a young man (1917s George MacKay), family trouble and a sadistic British constable (Nicholas Hoult) set into motion a chain of events that lead Ned to outlaw immortality.

Without a doubt, the performances areKelly Gangs crown jewels. Crowe is wonderful, clearly having the time of his life as a mischievous bad influence, and Hunnam and Hoult both sink their teeth into their respective roles as villainous, occupying Brits. (Hoult, to be fair, gets the more extravagantly psychotic material; Hunnam more in magnanimous savior mode.)

As Ned, MacKay does his best with a character weve pretty much seen before. Hes a man forced to violence out of a sense of familial responsibility foisted on him too young with a bottomless well of both mommy and daddy issues while devolving increasingly into manic madness and self-mythologizing because surprise! he has a sensitive streak. The best of MacKays performance is bracingly, intensely physical, but his most impressive scene may be the one of the more vulnerable moments Ned shares with an English teacher hostage.

But, with all due respect to MacKay, Davis is the films true star as Kelly matriarch Ellen. Shes a magnetic and terrifying piece of work and you never for one second doubt her power to keep all these men truly, every single one of them under her sway. From an innuendo-laden dinner conversation to a jail cell confrontation, Davis electrifies every scene shes in.

In addition to stellar performances, Kelly Gangalso has moments of true beauty, stunningly composed shots leveraging the full visual power of the Australian bush and the dramatic, eye-catching aesthetic embraced by the outlaws.

However, as a sum of these parts,The True History of the Kelly Ganglacks cohesion, momentum and ultimately, impact. Neds glaring parental problems its no surprise to learn Kurzel directed MacKay to approach scenes with Davis like he would a romantic partner arent particularly interesting, nor really is his quasi-romance or motivating conflict. The story simply drags, feeling much longer than its two-hour runtime.

Furthermore, for film lauded as gender-bending, transgressive and queer, it falls short of committing to any of those three things. The party line for why the men wear dresses into battle is that men are afraid of what they dont understand and men fear crazy. If his father, brother or any of the men in Neds gang are motivated otherwise, its not made text. And despite all the codifiers of intimacy and a romantic relationship between Ned and his best friend Joe (Sean Keenan) not to mention overwhelming sexual tension between Ned and Fitzpatrick in their first meeting plausible deniability abounds. (That said, the other lines of sexual attraction inKelly Gangare a Pandoras box of Oedipal complexes, pedophilia and power trips so maybe Ned and Joe are well enough left alone.)

Ultimately,Kelly Gangdoes not seem know what to do (or what it wants to do) with all the imagery, aesthetic and cultural signifiers it references. For all the monologues and speeches, theres no real sense of how the film understands Ned and his legacy or how a gender-bending punk rock veneer might elucidate some valuable truth about his story. Its sleek and stylish, and then its over.

There is a sharp, bold and visually stunning telling of the Ned Kelly myth somewhere in The True History of the Kelly Gang, but in the end, its too long, too uncertain and too flat to be legendary.

True History of the Kelly Gang is available on digital and on demandApril 24.

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True History of the Kelly Gang is all style - FanSided