Review: ‘Wild Horse Nine’ — A Caustic, Darkly Funny Bromance Poised for Awards Contention

Martin McDonagh has built a remarkable career on the back of sharp, brilliant bickering. The writer-director first made waves with In Bruges, which featured Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as a pair of hitmen hiding out in Belgium. More recently, The Banshees of Inisherin saw the same actors play friends who fall out hilariously, laced with trademark violence woven between the laughs. Wild Horse Nine, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival this week, delivers more of the same: two men moaning at each other amidst gallows humor and outrageous behavior.

Set in 1973 in Santiago, Chile, on the eve of the military coup that swept Augusto Pinochet to power, the story follows two CIA officers, Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell). Having evidently facilitated the changing of the guard, they have earned a break and fly to nearby Easter Island for an unspecified mix of business and pleasure. They are both experienced killers, men who have not only seen it all but likely shot bullets into it as well. Chris has helped destabilize and overthrow several regimes during his career and may even have had a hand in the assassination of American President John F. Kennedy.

If that shadowy life sounds like the makings of a great memoir, Chris is indeed working on one. He begins recording fascinating excerpts, including a bizarrely amusing tangent about dinosaurs, while MJ (Steve Buscemi), the pair’s boss, makes increasingly concerned calls to Lee from Santiago. Chris’s habit of letting secrets slip might make him too dangerous to keep alive, but the revelation that he has terminal cancer means he is out of time and reasons to keep quiet. Lee, meanwhile, endures long-distance agony during Stateside chats with his philandering wife, Marge (Parker Posey). Phone calls are central to the film, and Chris’s brief conversation with his estranged brother (the ever-gruff Tom Waits) stands among its most heartfelt moments.

Malkovich, more than any plot development, is the film’s main attraction. His remarkable ability to imbue the caustic Chris with vulnerability will surely lead to award nominations. His screen partner Rockwell, on fine form himself, previously won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his last performance for McDonagh in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, establishing a precedent for this kind of spiky, funny performance to take home a statue.

The women in the film are slightly underused. Two Chilean students Chris and Lee meet at the airport (Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas) reappear later, but they are not given much to do. It is a shame, given the director’s history of creating exceptional, layered roles for women, as he did for the Oscar-winning Frances McDormand in Three Billboards. Still, this does not detract too heavily from another bitingly funny, bracingly tough feature with top performances that will leave you with plenty to ponder once the end credits roll.

Details

• Director: Martin McDonagh
• Starring: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi
• Release date: November 6 (in UK cinemas)

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