The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada works. Understated, simple, easy to digest- watching Tommy Lee Jones manhandle Barry Pepper is a treat. All the horseriding and cowboy stuff is elegant and well-done. The plot is straightforward; Pepper (a border patrolman) kills Jones's best friend Melquaides- so Jones kidnaps Pepper to bring him back to Mexico to bury Mel.

Jones' mentality is great. Instead of the good ol' boy he played in the other movie he directed (for TNT), Jones stays stern, angry and focused. It gets a little too heavy handed when Jones forces Pepper to live Mel's life verbatim though, but that's sort of the point of the film. More modest in scope and naked ambition than most of the movies out now, but worth it.