Dreams, desires, and secrets sum up the 1950s and the new uneven film, “On Swift Horses” (Sony Pictures). This “epic” old-school style film strives to be a romance, a gambling story, domestic melodrama, even a hard-boiled film noir. Gay director Daniel Minahan (“Halston,” “Fellow Travelers”) presents us with a queer reimaging of the American dream in California and Nevada during the Eisenhower years represented by the key line, “We are all just a hair’s breadth from losing everything all the time.”
Yet even as a critique on the repressive nature of that era, the film remains flat as the suffocation of pent-up desires is merely suggested rather than passionately enacted.
Military man Lee Walker (Will Poulter), on leave from service in the Korean War, tries to convince his girlfriend Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) to marry him. Lee’s handsome, rebellious younger brother Julius (Jacob Elordi) visits, having been discharged from the military. There’s an instant mutual spark with Muriel when she sees him shirtless resting on the hood of his pickup truck. Muriel and Julius slow dance in front of an oblivious Lee who can’t see their attraction.
Despite being more interested in Julius, Muriel agrees to marry Lee as they head out to San Diego to fulfill their dreams. Unbeknownst to Lee, Muriel writes Julius asking him to join them, as the brothers originally envisioned creating a new life.
The newlyweds struggle financially with Muriel employed as a diner waitress and Lee a factory worker. Muriel sells her family Kansas home, sending money to Julius, so he can travel to California, but he opts to move to Las Vegas. Muriel overhears customers giving horse-betting tips. She makes a bet at the racetrack, starting a long winning streak through her gambling addiction, giving her enough money so she and Lee can buy a house, as well as fund her double life.
Making moves
Julius secures a job as security worker at a casino, spying on cheating customers in a secret room. He describes himself as a “thief, a faggot, and alone.” He meets scheming drifter Henry (Diego Calva). Henry makes a move on Julius and they become lovers. They reinvent themselves as con artists, cheating at card games at other casinos, based on their on-the-job training. They hope to amass enough money to build a life together. Disaster ensues with Julius trying to locate a missing Henry.
Muriel meets androgynous Sandra (Sasha Calle), a neighbor who sells olives and eggs. There’s a flirty scene in which you’ll never look at olives the same way again. Sandra falls in love with Muriel, who sees it more as a fling, though she realizes how unhappy and sexually unfulfilled she is with Lee.
The film revolves around the secrets Julius and Muriel conceal based on their real fears of being outed. Their attraction isn’t really sexual but more recognizing each other’s pain and loneliness. They ignite more passion non-sexually than Julius/Henry and Muriel/Sandra conjure in their tepid erotic encounters. There’s more excitement at the race track or casino than there is in the bedroom.
This plodding film only comes alive when Edgar-Jones and Elordi are together. Both gamblers and queer, they yearn for each other even though they can’t be a couple. Unfortunately, they only share a few scenes with little screen time together, but apart the film suffers from sluggish pacing and an all-pervasive staid tone.
Coded queers
Minahan uses gambling as a code for queer love, with money as a source for freedom for Muriel and Julius. Ultimately, they can’t avoid facing who they are. It’s hard to root for either character because they are self-serving, don’t care if they hurt other people, interested only in their own pleasure and making money. Still despite their dubious actions and keeping their true selves hidden, they yearn to love whom they want, following their own hearts.
The real hero is caring Lee, who gives unconditional love to Muriel and Julius, both of whom betray him. Sadly, the character is underwritten, only hinting at his complexity below the surface. As the film progresses, his presence (and that of the sultry Sandra) get short shrift, almost forgotten by the contrived ending, which leaves several loose ends.
Based on the bestselling debut novel by Shannon Pufahl, the film could have been a steamy romantic drama or a study on suppressed desire, but fails on both accounts. Actually, “On Swift Horses,” feels like two separate movies that never unite, with the Julius/Henry story more gripping than the stale Muriel/Sandra tete-a-tete, which seems doomed from the get-go.
Nonchalant ennui
As daring as queer romances were then, you would expect a sense of tension or danger, but neither materializes. There’s a kind of flatness, even nonchalant ennui that pervades the whole film. The idea is to portray Muriel and Julius as representing two different ways of dealing with the stifling suburban conformity that is hostile to fulfilling their dreams through their respective romances. Yet the social critique is muted, though it does spotlight the fringe spaces relegated to queer people in the 1950s.
However, the film boasts excellent performances from the five major protagonists. Gay men will be lusting after the gorgeous Elordi. If only the screenplay matched the talents of the actors.
The film is also adept at recreating a strong sense of time and place with its stunning, lovely-to-look-at-photography, so we can feel the melancholy and frustration endemic to the 1950s.
This bumpy, inert film echoes the themes of Minahan’s first half of the fiery “Fellow Travelers,” also a study of homophobic 1950s mores, which engendered much more passion even as those tortured characters were more persecuted.
The main actors in “Travelers” were both gay, which is assuredly not the case in “On Swift Horses,” which might account for the uninspiring ardor. The movie has noble intentions but flails in its execution and insular characters. Yearning for volcanic emotions, but instead we’re treated to detached ambiguous frustration in a tale of woe lacking any joy or sense of liberation.
“On Swift Horses” plays locally at AMC Metreon 16.
https://onswifthorses.com/
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