It's the latest from writer-director John Sayles, often a little oasis of quality to compare with mainstream Hollywood banality. This time, sadly, it's not the case. Silver City can't help seeming like a pale reflection of Lone Star, his most successful film. Chris Cooper and Kris Kristofferson, both sheriffs in that film, are again present and correct with Cooper, as a very Bush-like politician who is a hapless central figure in another tale about Tex-Mex aggro, migrant labour and land profiteering (Sayles covered that in Limbo and Sunshine State, too). This time around, the film is burdened with too many subplots and a far too talky approach. It's all a bit too murky to follow and the dialogue often turns preachy.

It's a shame because it starts well with a dead body being found in a river as spin doctor Richard Dreyfuss is trying to shoot a political broadcast for Cooper's vacuous politico. Silver City is enlivened by a nicely shaggy performance by Danny Huston and a memorable turn from Daryl Hannah as a crossbow-shooting bad girl. But at times Silver City is as clumsy as it is laborious and acts as a reminder that, like Ken Loach, Sayles is often at his best when he's furthest from telling us what we already know - Passion Fish, for example, was a stunning personal two-hander. Here, you can't help feeling that his large and talented cast have to hurry up because Sayles has a lot more characters waiting in the wings for their turn.