I realized, reading Martin McDonagh’s resume, that I’ve seen just about everything he’s written and directed on film and on stage.
Some of my favorites were the play, “Hangmen,” and the movie, “The Banshees of Inisherin.” His writing is magical and lyrical. I could listen to it endlessly.
“Wild Horse Nine” has a little less point than some of his other works, like the Oscar nominated “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.” It’s a two-hander, a lot like “Banshees,” about friendship, starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, who won an Oscar for “Billboards.”
It’s 1973, and the two guys are CIA spies sent from Santiago, Chile to Easter Island on what’s supposed to be a vacation. Steve Buscemi is their boss, who eventually meets up with them among the ancient “moia” or, as Malkovich’s Chris and Rockwell’s Lee call them, the Big Heads — giant carved stone heads built by the indigenous Rapa Nui circa 1500 CE.
They are CIA agents, and it comes out pretty fast that Chris, at least, had something to do with Kennedy assassination a decade earlier. Chris and Lee endearingly reminisce about their many covert operations the way old friends remember a wild bachelor party. “Remember when we over threw that country?” It makes for a lot of melancholy laughs in retrospect.
But we quickly learn, there’s a purpose to the trip, and it’s personal. If you thought they were on Easter Island as part of a mission, they are, but concerns Chris, who has cancer, and what he’s asked Lee to do about it. So there’s a sweetness and pathos because we know how this will end, and it’s ok with everyone. Maybe.
For a while the banter between Malkovich and Rockwell is so transcendent it doesn’t matter what they’re doing. This is why their Oscar nom chances have been so played up. Chris and Lee are like an old bickering couple who should be on the stage. The Big Heads are among the many metaphors, but they almost don’t matter.
But then reality interferes in the form of Buscemi, who reminds Lee they have work to do. Suddenly, you’re not so sure if Chris knows what’s going to happen or there are other motivations at play. But the whole apparatus has been set in motion, and we know it’s all inevitable.
Add to this trio a couple of curve ball supporting players: Parker Posey as Rockwell’s wife, back in the US and ready to steal her scenes that are over the phone. And singer Tom Waits, as Chris’s brother, who’s worked with McDonagh before and knows how to play the curmudgeonly oddball without missing a beat.
Also, two college girls the men meet, also ostensibly on vacation, who play a part in their trajectory.
In the end, “Wild Horse Nine” is a character study writ large. (There are wild horses, but more than nine of them, and I have no idea what the title means.) If there’s a plot, it’s somehow in the past. Chris and Lee’s adventures are behind them. Indeed, the film kind of peters out in the third act, but that’s alright. It’s their long dialogue you want to hear. It’s enchanting. At one point it doesn’t even matter what they’re talking about. Just let them keep talking.
Oscar chances? Many nominations but Best Picture would be elusive. The two actors, plus the screenplay would seem on target. Malkovich is getting the big push, but he’s in a tough group that includes Matt Damon, Andrew Scott, Ryan Gosling, and a player to be named soon. Still, Malkovich is a beloved veteran who makes every movie better. Can Disney Searchlight — fka Fox Searchlight — pull this off? Stay tuned…
