Sunday Cinema: Wild Horse Nine
Not knowing anything about this film, I immediately knew that I should see it. Sometimes impulses pay off. With only the title, the two stars and a one-line advertisement, I was sold. Reel me in.
Movies like this have a tough time finding their legs in a theater. It’s usually a quick in and out, so I didn’t delay. The initial reviews are quite positive, especially praising the acting of John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, and supporting actor Steve Buscemi. There is a lot of dialogue in the film, it’s a character film developed around the unfolding relationship between the Malkovich and Rockwell characters. The story happens around these characters. If you expect a lot of action and fast-moving intrigue, you’re in the wrong film.
Wild Horse Nine is a mystery-political-dark humor film taking place in 1973 Chile, prior to the military coup against President Salvador Allende and involving the two CIA agents (Malkovich and Rockwell).
The film moves at a slow and sometimes confusing pace as Chris (Malkovich) and Lee (Rockwell) leave Santiago for Easter Island where Chris can see the “big faces.” Most of the film takes place there as we learn who these two guys are and why they’ve traveled here.
Without giving too much away, Chris is at the end of his life, his health is failing, and the audience is led to feel that his mind is failing as well. Lee is younger, but also seasoned as we learn these guys have quite a history of covert activities around the world, in fact, Chris is taping his story on cassette tapes, the purpose of which we don’t know.
All the while, it’s hinted that political instability in Chile is ahead, and the CIA is involved. It becomes quickly apparent that every character in the film may not be what they seem and allegiances cannot be trusted at face value.
Writer-director Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin, In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) has delivered another complex character-driven film that has a lot to say, but squeezes it out in small portions. Halfway through the film, I still wasn’t sure where the film was going or the truth about these characters. The glimpses we see of people don’t always tell us who they really are, the same is true for the characters in this film, these are not cardboard characters, and issues are not always defined in one, short sentence.
Easter Island is beautiful. A remote island in the Pacific is more than 2,100 miles from Chile. It seems a world away from the coming problems in Chile. Which may be the point. The wild horses on the island represent that quiet and safe life, until one of them ventures too close to a road. The danger that humans bring.
Do I recommend this film? Absolutely, with the declaration that not everyone will like this film, mainly because of the slow and structure that keeps you guessing about the characters, including Chris and Lee.
Rottentomatoes: 94%
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