Another year, another somber male friendship movie from Martin McDonagh: this time, Wild Horse Nine. It’s a topic the British-Irish filmmaker knows well, as it’s been the subject of three of McDonagh’s five feature films. That does run the risk of becoming repetitive; how many times can you explore friendships between two men that secretly mean more to each other than they might’ve realized?
What helps set Wild Horse Nine apart is the fact that there’s a CIA destabilization backdrop and a stunning Easter Island setting. McDonagh has often explored American politics (see particularly Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), and this time, he’s not being terribly subtle. Still, that layer works well, even if the relationship at the center of the movie isn’t as strong as some of McDonagh’s other duos.
Wild Horse Nine Review
This is ultimately a movie about two friends, one nearing the end of his life thanks to a terminal cancer diagnosis. John Malkovich plays the ex-CIA agent Chris to near perfection. His eyes do a lot of heavy lifting here. In every scene, there is a mixture of regret and sadness just lurking, waiting to be let out. It’s a restrained performance, especially in comparison to Malkovich’s history and the usual Martin McDonagh lead.
Malkovich plays the slow sleepiness of someone nearing death really well, only occasionally veering into caricature territory with some slow, stilted line deliveries that just slightly miss the mark. Otherwise, it’s pretty flawless, and it’s almost certain to net him his first Best Actor Oscar nomination.
His co-star, Sam Rockwell, is also solid. Malkovich’s Chris is mostly quiet and never over-the-top, but he is a little ridiculous. He’s either regretful enough to let things slip, forgetful enough not to know that he shouldn’t say things, or dying enough to simply not care about any of it. Either way, he has some pretty silly lines, and Rockwell’s Lee plays a good straight man opposite him.
McDonagh’s dry humor is present mostly throughout. There are some really good jokes sprinkled in, and because Wild Horse Nine doesn’t ever veer into truly depressing form, there are no tonal shifts. There’s an undercurrent of sadness, but the humor works well alongside that.
The filmmaking is also really good. Wild Horse Nine is shot so well, and the scenic backdrop of Easter Island is ridiculously beautiful. It’s that backdrop that really keeps Wild Horse Nine afloat even when it is struggling to find its footing. Two great actors doing their thing on a gorgeous island is enough for most movies.
Faltering
Where this movie falters is in the writing. Sometimes, it feels like (in all of his films, but certainly here) Martin McDonagh has so many ideas and themes he wants to include in his narrative that the actual story becomes secondary. His script gestures at a lot of really great ideas, but it doesn’t explore them too deeply in most instances.
And even the things it does explore fully are left a little underbaked, such as the primary relationship between Sam Rockwell’s Lee and John Malkovich’s Chris. It would work better if the relationship were developed more. There’s one flashback scene, but otherwise, we’re just largely meant to assume that these two care about each other deeply. There are a few scenes that back this up, such as Chris’ memoir voiceover that says he never had a friend before Lee, or the tears Lee sheds when talking to his wife (a hilarious Parker Posey) about Chris’ illness.
These moments are the best in the film. We briefly glimpse what these characters truly mean to one another. They’ve largely been coworkers, traveling around destabilizing governments and even assassinating John F. Kennedy, but through that, they’ve become close. Lee agonizes over Chris’ impending death, and Chris is finally reflecting on how lonely his life has been. These are great character moments, but they’re few and far between.
McDonagh also seems to tie his own hands behind his back. The CIA backdrop works so well for the political themes, with a clear, biting take on how the United States has often engaged in global politics. Wild Horse Nine is hypercritical of this, and that seems to be the big take that McDonagh is playing with here.
But when you are banking on the audience feeling something for these two agents so that the tragic end emotionally resonates, making the characters genuinely awful people is a tough sell. For all the work Malkovich is doing to make you care about what is happening to his character, the actual character makes it harder. On the one hand, he’s dying, and he’s lonely. On the other hand, he killed John F. Kennedy and has no qualms about telling Chilean students that they’re going to die because of his actions.
There is certainly some regret present in Chris, but that is largely due to Malkovich’s impeccable performance. His eyes reveal how he really feels, even as a slight smile creeps into his face while talking about all the destruction he’s wrought. And every time we do get a moment to feel like both characters are human and that they care, it’s short-lived.
Despite that, this is still a very good film. McDonagh’s floor is simply too high as a director and writer. A weak McDonagh script is still very good, and his eye behind the camera has perhaps never been better. Some really outstanding work from Malkovich helps rescue the movie in its few weak spots, too, so it’s definitely worth a trip to the cinema.
Score: 4/5
