Based on the 2019 book by Shannon Pufahl, On Swift Horses is a story about secrets and secret lives in the period in American history immediately following the Korean War. Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Lee (Will Poulter) are living a quiet life in an isolated part of Kansas, in a home Muriel’s late mother left to her. He’s asked her to marry him a few times, but soon Lee’s charismatic brother Julius (Jacob Elordi) arrives and throws their plans into a tizzy. He encourages them to go to San Diego with him to start a new life and business, which would mean Muriel would have to sell her mother’s house—the first of many compromises and sacrifices she’s willing to make to keep her stable, normal life intact. This is not made easy since she already feels the seductive pull of Julius tugging at her, signaling the uneasy beginnings of a love triangle.
While Muriel and Lee begin their married life in brand new housing development in San Diego, Lee vanishes, opting for the life of a gigolo who sleeps with women and men for money. He eventually gets a job at a Vegas casino as part of the security team who spots cheaters by looking at card players through one-way mirrors in the ceiling of the facility. He’s working with another man, Henry (Diego Calva, Babylon), and the two start a romance and even begin plotting how they can rip off the casino—a half-baked plan that goes horribly wrong, forcing them to separate in order not to both get caught.
Meanwhile, Muriel finds herself having elicit thoughts about another woman, Sandra (Sasha Calle), while she also embarks on a secret life gambling on the ponies using tips from customers at her waitressing job. She makes a healthy stack of cash, which she won’t admit is meant to be a nest-egg for when she leaves her husband (though it seems abundantly clear to us). Directed by Daniel Minahan (a TV veteran of such series as Games of Thrones, True Blood, and American Crime Story), On Swift Horses is beautifully acted and stunningly shot, but seems to lack the emotional depth of a true melodrama. It’s also shockingly easy to predict: if the best move for a character is one thing, that character will do the exact opposite worst thing.
The love triangle aspect of the story is perhaps the most interesting, since at any minute it seems like any two of the three leads could fall into bed together, because they’re all just so damn good-looking and horny. Still, it all feels fairly empty and passionless, with the exception of Poulter, who brings a powerful energy to his willingly oblivious Lee. But there is a confessional moment when Muriel finally stops lying to her husband; his reaction is unexpectedly ferocious after an entire movie with him playing the doormat.
Elordi spends most of the film simply smoldering and seducing anyone he can, even if it’s only for a job or a bit of cash. Muriel is meant to be the main character of this story, but even in her most explicit sequences, Edgar-Jones doesn’t generate much eroticism or chemistry with either of her male counterparts or the Sandra character. It’s unfortunate, because I think there’s a great story to be told here about being closeted during the 1950s in an America that was showing early signs of crumbling around them. The subject matter is important, but the film flounders in trying the make sense of them.
On Swift Horses is now in theaters.
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