‘On Swift Horses’ has fine performances, but nothing of interest to say

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Place your bets.

Synopsis

On Swift Horses tells the story of Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones), her husband Lee (Will Poulter), and his brother Julius (Jacob Elordi), who all live in Kansas near the end of the Korean War. Muriel and Lee decide to move to California to start a new life, with Julius moving to Las Vegas to make money through gambling.

Muriel gets a taste of gambling herself, betting on horse races and making money behind Lee’s back. Over the next six months, Julius works surveillance at the casino, beginning a romantic relationship with co-worker Henry (Diego Calva). Muriel also develops new romantic feelings for her neighbor Sandra (Sasha Calle), putting a strain on her marriage with Lee.

My thoughts

Based on Shannon Pufahl’s novel, On Swift Horses evokes feelings of classical romantic dramas from the 1950s, at least in an aesthetic sense. We have attractive young leads smoking cigarettes while laying on hoods of muscle cars, sporting James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor hairdos, all while they longingly look into each other’s eyes before they screw each other over all in the name of “love”, or something along those lines.

Daniel Minahan directs his first theatrical feature film in 24 years after being a reliable working man in television, directing episodes of hit shows like Game of Thrones and House of Cards. He also worked on Deadwood: The Movie, so with “cinematic” television credits like that, I was hopeful that he could adequately move on to making a theatrical feature film.

Off to the races

Unfortunately for Minahan, he isn’t given the proper novel or screenplay to turn this subject matter into anything meaningful. Visually, On Swift Horses is terrific; the whole movie feels real and lived in. He and the crew knocked the costumes, sets, and overall aesthetic out of the park. I could have done with some more saturation in the color department so the movie could further elicit that 1950s romantic drama aesthetic, but Luc Montpellier’s tasteful, atmospheric lighting was easy on the eyes.

Where On Swift Horses greatly falters is in the character department. Not only are there too many storylines lacking focus on a protagonist, but none of the characters here are all that interesting. It’s just a bunch of self-centered people gambling and screwing around with each other, both literally and figuratively, behind their backs. Conflicts will be introduced and then ignored or forgotten about to make room for more conflicts to be resolved haphazardly.

When Muriel is trying to make more money in California, she bets on horse races using information she overhears from patrons at the diner where she works. With the title being On Swift Horses, you assume that’s what the plot will generally be about: making lots of money by betting on the swiftest horse. Things are going good for Muriel at first, so you’re just waiting for the shoe to drop for her.

Only it never does. Beyond allowing her to make more money and give her agency by doing it behind Lee’s back, the whole horse race betting angle doesn’t pay off in really any way. I understand the point that’s being made with Lee being self-sufficient after a life of constantly being told what to do, but it’s just one of the many story elements that never gets the proper development.

I guess the point the story is trying to make is that sometimes gambling pays off and sometimes it doesn’t? Things don’t go as well for Julius as it does for Muriel when it comes to gambling, but it still doesn’t amount to much. I suppose you can give credit to the writers involved for not going the most obvious route, but you still need to come up with something interesting to make up for that.

Tangled relationships

It’s when our three lead actors are together that On Swift Horses is at its best, but we only get that in the first and last acts of the film. I was charmed by the opening scenes setting the stage for their story, then it separates it them for a majority of the runtime. So, when the characters and their personal journeys converge at the end, it’s all too little too late by that point. The final act introduces some interesting elements, but maybe introduce those earlier in the story to, you know, make it engaging?

I haven’t read Shannon Pufahl’s novel, so I’m not sure if the fault lies with her, screenwriter Bryce Kass, Minahan, or all three. The story structure definitely feels like a low-brow romance novel with lots of jumping around from character to character as they engage in sexual escapades and send romantic letters to each other. The exploration of some of these characters being gay or bisexual in the 1950s and struggling to keep those true feelings hidden is something worth exploring, but it all gets lost in the shuffle.

At least the cast is decent and are the ones responsible for carrying this slog. Daisy Edgar-Jones was a solid blockbuster lead in Twisters, and she’s just as good in character dramas like this. Ironically, her characterization in Twisters had more meat on the bone than Muriel does here. She’s still effective, but the material doesn’t give her any chances to excel. Honestly, none of the actors really get a chance.

When the main trio isn’t onscreen together, Jacob Elordi and Diego Calva’s storyline is the most engrossing thing about this affair. It’s one of the few predictable things about the narrative, and things only go the way they do because they’re impulsive morons, but it at least added some serious stakes. The way it’s all resolved is ludicrous, but my attention was finally grabbed, although my curiosity was long gone at that point.

In the third movie I’ve seen him in this month, Will Poulter is as good as he always is. His character just gives him nothing to work with, acting clueless and aloof throughout the story. Sasha Calle also doesn’t really get anything to do with her character Sandra, but she does get to call out Muriel on her self-centered nonsense. She’s quite possibly the only decent character in this movie, partially because we hardly know anything about her.

Final verdict

On Swift Horses has an intimate 1950s quality and a talented cast leading it, but it struggles to pick a lane when telling the story to the point where it hardly has a story at all. There are definitely a lot of plot threads and characters, but when it comes to actually making a cogent point out of it, it only makes me wonder what exactly I am supposed to be getting out of any of this? It’s all quite nice to look at, but really has nothing to say.