On Swift Horses

A repressed movie about repression. The characters all have a certain emotional distance from each other, and I felt that the filmmaker had an emotional distance from the characters themselves.

A beautiful, empty mess of a movie.

Minahan has made a film about embracing life when you’re not legally allowed to, and he refuses to make watching it a misery, no matter how rough it gets.

For a movie whose core metaphor is about gambling, On Swift Horses rarely takes risks, sketching superficial characters that are more ideas than real people.

The acting is a saving grace, especially Edgar-Jones’ commitment to nuance and Poulter’s refreshingly shaded Lee, whose depth of awareness at a critical moment is a believable surprise, beautifully handled by the actor.

The film is too obsessed with surfaces to be particularly deep, but Daisy Edgar-Jones is especially good as a woman longing for something just out of her grasp and Will Poulter is a heartbreaking everyman.

It would be easy to point to this group and bemoan the lack of a single lighting-bolt presence who jolts the whole thing to life. Instead, the main players glow with just the right amount of simmering heat; they’re starry, but not yet dominating stars.

Despite its strong performances and evocative visuals, On Swift Horses takes us on a journey that is too restrained to be truly memorable. [Full Review in Spanish]

“On Swift Horses” goes deep and succeeds. It not only examines the idea of risking everything for love, but it also explores the paths that must be taken to overcome the emptiness that its characters feel. This is the adult drama you’ve been craving.

Elordi smolders, Edgar-Jones stares and never the twain shall meet in a film that feels flat when it should be passionate, familiar when it should be dangerous and whose supporting players get better moments than their leads.