The Dead Don’t Hurt is continuing an excellent and decade-long Viggo Mortensen streak. A Western that earned a limited release in September 2023, Dead Don’t Hurt follows a pair of lovers trying to survive during the Civil War. Mortensen directed, wrote, and starred in the movie, which was released nationally on May 31, 2024. While Dead Don’t Hurt has some negative reviews, the majority have been overwhelmingly positive.

Dead Don’t Hurt is the latest Mortensen movie to earn a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. With a current Tomatometer score of 85%, it has been certified fresh, just like every other Mortensen project of the past decade. His last rotten movie came in 2012 with Everybody Has a Plan, but every movie since has been fresh since 2014’s The Two Faces of January. While audience scores have been mixed, critics have had endless praise for the past 10 years of Mortensen’s work.

Viggo Mortensen’s Incredible Rotten Tomatoes Streak

Dead Don’t Hurt Is Only Mortensen’s Latest Success

Viggo Mortensen has enjoyed an incredible career filled with constant hits. While he is best known as an actor, he has also broken into directing and music. Regardless, Mortensen’s entire movie career has been littered with praise from critics and audiences alike, and the past 10 years of constant success have been an outstanding period for him. He has not had a critical disappointment since 2012, and his lowest score since came from 2020s Falling, which earned a still-impressive 67%. His movies are so critically respected that Green Book even earned the Oscar for Best Picture.

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Audiences have been slightly less favorable of his work, as The Two Faces of January earned below 50% among audiences and Jauja and Crimes of the Future earned exactly 50%. Eureka was not rated, and Dead Don’t Hurt sits at just 60%. Still, despite these disappointments, Far From Men, Captain Fantastic, Green Book, and Thirteen Lives have all earned over 70% scores, which is still an impressive performance. Mortensen may be pleasing critics, but audiences are still generally positive about his past 10 years of work.

While Mortensen’s career has likely been defined by the Lord of the Rings movies, his success has lasted through every decade. He saw success in the 1990s with 1995’s Crimson Tide and 1991’s The Indian Runner, his tenure with the Lord of the Rings franchise from 2001 to 2003 helped him keep his widespread respect, and the 2010s and early 2020s have been massively successful for Mortensen. His Rotten Tomatoes streak is only continuing, and Mortensen’s future is likely to be filled with more critically acclaimed movies after The Dead Don’t Hurt.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

The Dead Don’t Hurt (2023)

The Dead Don’t Hurt is a story of star-crossed lovers on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s. Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) is a fiercely independent woman who embarks on a relationship with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen). After meeting Olsen in San Francisco, she agrees to travel with him to his home near the quiet town of Elk Flats, Nevada, where they start a life together. The outbreak of the civil war separates them when Olsen makes a fateful decision to fight for the Union. This leaves Vivienne to fend for herself in a place controlled by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller (Danny Huston) and his unscrupulous business partner, powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt). Alfred’s violent, wayward son Weston (Solly McLeod) aggressively pursues Vivienne, who is determined to resist his unwanted advances. When Olsen returns from the war, he and Vivienne must confront and make peace with the person each has become. Both a tragic love story and a nuanced depiction of the conflict between revenge and forgiveness, The Dead Don’t Hurt is a portrait of a passionate woman determined to stand up for herself in an unforgiving world dominated by ruthless men.
 

Release Date

September 8, 2023

Cast

Vicky Krieps , Viggo Mortensen , Solly McLeod , Garret Dillahunt , W. Earl Brown , Danny Huston , Shane Graham , Rafel Plana

Runtime

129 Minutes

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