Secret-lives drama ‘On Swift Horses’ trots when it should gallop
“On Swift Horses” — 2 .5 stars
Daniel Minahan’s sincere and sympathetic period drama “On Swift Horses” hosts a solid cast, richly composed cinematography from Luc Montpellier, and impressive, highly detailed 1950s production designs, right down to a nostalgically accurate Folger’s coffee can.
So why does its crisp and enticing beginning slowly succumb to narrative inertia during its second hour?
Perhaps screenwriter Bryce Kass worked too diligently to preserve too much of Shannon Pufahl’s 2019 novel so that too many characters and too many subplots must struggle to keep our attention.
The moment that young, attractive Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) meets her boyfriend’s even-more attractive older brother, Julius (Jacob Elordi), we sense an instant connection between them.
That palpable connection turns out not to be sexual chemistry, as we might expect in a formula romantic triangle, but to be a strange kindred spirit that unites them in their shared secrets. The deep, dark kind that can destroy relationships, livelihoods and lives.
Julius has just returned from the Korean War to visit his brother Lee (Will Poulter).
(Something on this timeline doesn’t quite make chronological sense. The Korean War ended in 1953. The Western series “The Rifleman” — glimpsed on a TV set here — began Sept. 30, 1958. So, did Julius wait half a decade after the war before visiting his brother?)
Lee, a dependable, honest guy with a steroidal pompadour, has asked Muriel to marry him. She so far has refused. He dreams about using the money from her late mother’s homestead to move to San Diego for a new life.
Muriel finally, reluctantly, says yes to both the marriage and the move. She secures a promise from Julius that he will join them in San Diego.
But he upholds his reputation as an unreliable misfit and goes off to work at a Reno casino.
Meanwhile — and this is where the titular horses come in — Muriel begins secretly sneaking off to the racetrack to place bets, using tips she overhears from gamblers at the diner where she works. She becomes extraordinarily successful.
This, of course, is only one of the double lives she leads. She begins the second one when she goes to a nearby farm to purchase fresh olives and meets Sandra (a mysteriously charismatic Sasha Calle). The simple act of spitting an olive pit into Sandra’s receptive hand hits Muriel like a bolt of sexualized lightning.
Her reluctance to marry Lee suddenly becomes understandable.
In Reno, the ever-restless Julius falls for a guy he thinks might be the one. Henry (“Babylon” star Diego Calva, delivering the strongest performance in this movie) works as a security guard with Julius.
They share some steamy scenes grappling and grabbing, but Henry, a Mexican who has endured his share of abuse and disrespect, harbors no romantic illusions and regards Julius as a temporary fling.
Yes, relationships are a gamble, and both Muriel and Julius have a lot to lose during this ultraconservative Eisenhower era.
Muriel doesn’t play the horses simply to amass cash. She does it to supply a blunt gambling metaphor for her secretive relationship with Sandra.
In case we don’t pick up on this, a stylish and sophisticated lesbian (actress, comedian, musician and former world-class equestrian Maxi Witrak) lays it out to Muriel with words to the effect: “We live a hair’s breadth away from losing everything at any moment, all the time!”
Elordi (joining Edgar-Jones as an executive producer here) lets his James Dean-smoldering cool do the dramatic heavy lifting, while Poulter imbues his nondescript husband with an engaging spark.
As Muriel, Edgar-Jones delivers a nuanced performance focusing on tiny, telling details instead of emotional excesses and broad strokes common to some gay-themed movies actually made during the 1950s.
Still, this drama could use a boost of narrative horsepower.
Minahan and three editors tend to pull the reins in on “On Swift Horses” when they need to put the spurs to it.
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Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jacob Elordi, Will Poulter, Sasha Calle, Diego Calva
Directed by: Daniel Minahan
Other: A Sony Pictures Classics release. Rated R for language, nudity, sexual situations. 117 minutes