Film ‘Wild Horse Nine’ with Malkovich and Rockwell screened in Venice — TIME
Martin McDonagh’s new film ‘Wild Horse Nine’ was presented in the competition program of the Venice Film Festival. John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play CIA agents who work in Santiago in 1973 and set off on a special assignment to Easter Island.
As TIME reports, the film focuses on the difficult friendship of two partners — Chris, played by Malkovich, and Lee, played by Rockwell. The characters have worked together for a long time and understand each other’s moods, but often argue. Lee is irritated by his older colleague’s tendency toward bizarre reflections on mortality, memory, and other topics.
Chris and the trip to Easter Island
Chris has cancer and uses heroin not for pleasure. He plans to write memoirs and has long wanted to see the moai, which he calls “big heads.” According to the plot, over his years of service he secretly killed about 68 people, but he also shows sentimentality: he does not want to kill the moth that has appeared in his apartment in Santiago and carries it outside.
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On Easter Island, Chris becomes fascinated by wild horses and forms a particular attachment to one of them. The film also features the characters’ boss, MJ, played by Steve Buscemi, and two student tourists played by Aileen Salas and Mariana Di Girolamo.
Assessment of the acting
The TIME reviewer notes that McDonagh’s script is packed with eccentric jokes and can at times seem overly contrived. At the same time, she highly praised the acting duo of Malkovich and Rockwell. In her view, Rockwell convincingly plays Chris’s more restrained interlocutor and reliable partner, while Malkovich gives the character energy and humanity.
The review compares the film with McDonagh’s previous works, ‘In Bruges’ and ‘The Banshees of Inisherin,’ which also feature conflicted male relationships and animal imagery as important elements.
