REEL CRITIC:

Ed Harris is star, director and cowriter of “Appaloosa,” an elegant Western set in New Mexico in the 1800s. Thanks to him, the classic oater remains alive and well and beautifully photographed, if not always exciting. This has obviously been a labor of love for Harris — he even does some fair singing over the ending credits.

Harris and Viggo Mortensen play Virgil and Everett, two well-dressed roving “peacemakers,” or men hired to clean up towns from such violent bullies such as Randall Bragg. Until their arrival in the quiet little town of Appaloosa, Bragg and his gang have been accustomed to doing what they like without fear of the consequences.

The laconic yin-yang between the two leads is relaxed and funny. Virgil reads the classics to expand his vocabulary, but often it’s Everett who must come to his aid with the exact word he’s looking for.

Jeremy Irons is delightfully nasty as Bragg — his elegant sneer at Virgil’s shortcomings in one jail scene is particularly cruel.

Apart from the film’s moseying pace, the main flaw with “Appaloosa” is the serious miscasting of Renée Zellweger as Allison, the new lady in town.

Her pink-cheeked sweetness charms Virgil and Everett alike, but this opportunistic woman is far from what she seems.

This is a complex, amoral character, and Zellweger is regrettably unable to convince us of the steel that lies beneath the magnolia.

SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa and is an executive assistant for a financial services company.