Lee (Will Poulter) has asked Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) to marry him many times. When she says yes, it’s Christmastime, and Lee’s brother Julius (Jacob Elordi) is visiting them. When the newlyweds and the brother-in-law embark on separate adventures to find fortune, what they end up with is a personal quest that combines questioning and self-discovery, as we follow along the parallel journeys of Muriel and Julius in 1950s America.
On Swift Horses is a sweet surprise of a film. What starts off as an inspection of the dynamics and chemistry between the three main characters quietly transforms into a depiction of repressed identity and the sacrifices one unconsciously makes when trapped in society, as well as within oneself. Soberly directed by Daniel Minahan, Bryce Kass’ screenplay leaves ample space for the characters to expand and grow past the stereotypes of the bored housewife and the alluring single wanderer.
It can be argued that sometimes too much space is given as the film’s pace falters in the second act, as the characters struggle to encounter new impediments. Risks are present and taken, and yet, no one ever seems really endangered, thus creating a dichotomy between the ever-present angst and the lack of consequence; a melodramatic tone which rings false in comparison to the harsh reality of the characters’ struggles and the genuineness that is wished to be found at the center of the narrative.
Nevertheless, the audience is thrown into the midst of those characters’ struggles, and all three leading performers breathe life into them, bringing complexities and interiority that are not directly discernible. Daisy Edgar-Jones grounds Muriel into a confident woman without surrendering her sensibility that appears to us at first, while Jacob Elordi breathes authenticity into a Don Juan who could have otherwise easily slipped into a one-faceted persona. It is worth noting that they are both being magnificently supported by Sasha Calle and Diego Calva. It would have been interesting to explore Will Poulter’s Lee just as profoundly, and not just see him relegated to the supporting-but-absent husband.
The film is elevated, in other parts, by its soundtrack. An honest dive into the mid-century aesthetic, which plunges the audience into its atmosphere before the first image even graces the screen. The film is at its best when depicting moments of pure release and unguarded emotions, which through musical accompaniment transform into glimpses of true freedom, pathways to an alternate reality, simultaneously a fingertip and a couple of decades away.
On Swift Horses does not reinvent the genre nor does it dazzle with its gaze on the 1950s self-repression, but in its quietness and its subtlety, it offers an agreeable characters’ study brimming with chemistry and a particularly spending soundtrack.
The film is now playing in theatres.
Photo credits : Mongrel Media
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