The vast majority of movies either sink or swim, depending upon what is up on the screen. For those kinds of films, it makes no difference what is their literary legacy because they presuppose no antecedent, unlike a sequel or a film based upon a tv series. "The Claim" begins with the brownish look of some of the earlier Clint Eastwood westerns and seems to almost attempt to emulate some of that feeling. Naming a town, Kingdom Come, almost immediately brings to mind Pale Rider with "The Claim" lacking the austerity of that film. No one can fault the backdrop of this movie - the Sierra Nevada's. There is hope that this will be more than a decent film with an adequate budget and good actors because it is associated with the BBC. It certainly has a look to it that strives for authenticity. So how does it turn out?<br /><br />The British underpinning of this movie can either take one of two forms: tally ho and away we go or the stiff British lip that one finds in sound bites from its parliament with those "here, here." Well, the 'here, here" gets the nod here. Even with its nudity, the film is too conservative, indicating a misunderstanding of the feel of the old American west. Whoever wrote the script should have studied the early Clint Eastwood movies (such as "The Outlaw Josey Wales") more thoroughly. It is just too genteel and lacks rawness. <br /><br />Nastassja Kinski receives third billing in this film. Her role is the glue that holds this movie together. Very early on, for those looking for her, she is seen in 1/8th profile for less than a second and then holding on for dear life as an open ended wagon bounces along the dirt road with her and her daughter in the back. At best, this role is two dimensional and clearly lacks depth because none was called for in the portrayal of a dying woman. As soon as she is shown coughing up blood, it is obviously curtains for her with the hope that she can make something out of the role like Clint Eastwood in "Honkytonk Man" - she can't. She does what she has to with a convincing cough. <br /><br />The other actors, with more defined and difficult roles, are simply not up to the task to pull them off in a convincing manner. They fail to rise to the occasion. Wes Bentley, as Dalglish, is not credible. He would appear to be more comfortable waiting on tables in between acting jobs at Campanile, a restaurant in Los Angeles. He doesn't appear to possess the mental grit to cold heartedly kill someone, much less spearhead the laying out of a railroad in the wild west. Milla Jovovich as Lucia is passable. There is no electricity in her performance even with her prosthetic gold tooth. Peter Mullan as Daniel Dillon is way too conservative. The role calls for more emotional espression or at least the hint of it. Sarah Polley being a young actress of 20 or so at the time, must have been thrilled to get the role and isn't pushed very hard on the performance scale. <br /><br />"The Claim" is a movie that is very much like a full cup of water in its beginning, but by the end of the movie one realizes that there is a hole at the bottom of the cup because everything has dribbled away. Simply put, it lacks passion and emotional content.