ON SWIFT HORSES

TIFF 24 REVIEW BY: KURT MORRISON

DATE: SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

RATING: 2.5 out of 5

The stars really try to align for On Swift Horses, and for all the young star power in front of the camera and some beautiful cinematic craftsmanship behind the camera, I found myself underwhelmed by the final product, as the lens of living a dual life in 1950s America never feels fully fleshed out.

Adapted from the novel by Shannon Pufahl, which won awards in LGBTQ+ fiction writing, the story centers around Muriel, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, who is living a quaint and quiet life in rural Kansas in a house she inherited from her mother alongside her boyfriend, Lee (Will Poulter). Lee has just returned from the Korean War and it is clear that he is very much in love with his partner, as on Christmas Eve he professes his love for her and asks her to marry him. Lee seems like a salt of the earth kind of guy, someone who will protect Muriel at all costs and take care of her, yet you can see in her eyes that there is hesitation; uncertainty in her big beautiful eyes.

Enter Julius. The tall, dark, handsome drifter of a brother of Lee, who has also come home from Korea to spend Christmas with the pair and find a life back on U.S. soil. From the second Julius (Jacob Elordi) walks in, you sense and see the sexual tension between him and Muriel and it only gets more complicated from there.

Listen, I thought I was signing up for a film about a love triangle between these three beautiful people, but instead On Swift Horses fractures into two separate storylines - one in which Muriel begins sleeping with her female latino neighbor - played by the fantastic Sasha Callee - while secretly betting on horses at the racetracks. The other finds Elordi’s Julius running away from his family life to the bright lights of Sin City, where he takes up a job doing Casino surveillance and starts a hot and heavy affair with a Mexican co-worker named Henry (Diego Calva). His story gets more complicated once they realize the power and ability they have to cheat the gambling system and make some serious money off of it.

Admittedly, I really did appreciate the shift in character perspective as the second act wrapped, when Julius and Muriel begin going after what they really want. The once rebellious Julius wants safety - he’s reluctant to cheat the casino he and Henry work at for risk of ruining the good thing they have, while Muriel wants that risk in her life, when she begins her affair with Callee’s Sandra and frequent trips to the racetracks. It’s a surprising and welcomed shift in character perspective that I wasn’t expecting.

Both of these parallel storylines are interesting, don’t get me wrong. But something feels disjointed as the film goes along simply because not one of the primary themes gets fully addressed. I wasn’t getting my love triangle as anticipated BUT I expected more fleshing out from the script that introduces five incredibly interesting characters.

What is it really like being secretly queer in the 1950’s?

What does it feel like to be a gambling addict?

Is the American Dream a real thing?

Can a person really change?

Although the script feels messy, Elordi and Edgar-Jones are incredibly captivating in their roles and their chemistry is enough to go nuclear in that first act. The tension between the two is undeniable and the few scenes they share together are the stand-outs, especially when Poulter’s Lee is in the scene and clearly out of the know.

Interestingly enough, I imagined that Poulter’s character was going to be the antagonist of the whole film, but instead he plays a genuinely good person - caring, understanding, hard working, salt of the earth. His story may be the most heartbreaking through the entirety of the film simply because he hopes and dreams of that ‘American Dream’ are ever elusive and so in turns becomes his marriage.

Behind the camera, Canadian cinematographer Luc Montpellier is led by director Daniel Minahan’s eye and the film looks very polished. Although the sets are neither huge or sprawling, Montpellier’s eye behind the lens provides a cultivated look at the rapidly growing California suburbs of that era along with the backrooms of Vegas. Obviously contrasting in terms of location and energy, both director and cinematographer are clearly aligned how they want the settings to look and feel and in doing so, it gives beautiful weight to film as a whole.

I am intrigued to see what differences were made from page to screen but all-in-all, it was a decent character dive with On Swift Horses. It is far from a perfect film, but I can’t say I was not entertained. Although Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi aren’t given a lot to work with, they make the best of this tale of sexual duality and showcase that they are some of the best young talents working in Hollywood today.