Lee (Will Poulter) is in pursuit of the American dream; an honest job, a wife, Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones), and new home out in California perfect for laying down roots and raising a family.  His brother, Julius (Jacob Elordi), was always part of the plan as the two had talked about moving out west when their time in the military was up.  Despite their shared dreams, when Julius is discharged early, the first crack in the plans begin to form.  Julius finds work at a casino where he gets involved with Las Vegas card cheat Henry (Diego Calva), and Muriel finds comfort in the arms of her new neighbor, Sandra (Sasha Calle), on her way home from afternoons spent gambling at the horse track. 

Daniel Minahan directs On Swift Horses, a lusty, 50s-set film penned by Bryce Kass adapting Shannon Pufahl 2019 novel of the same name.  The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival where it was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for theatrical release.  Luc Montpellier lenses the 119-minute film, and while Erin Magill’s detailed production design does at times force the image to teeter into the kitsch styles of the time, Kass’ script deals with sexuality and desire in a very modern, upfront way that helps wipe the dust off of this period piece for its modern audience. 

The opening act is a quick sample of what is to come as we are introduced to this pseudo-ménage à trois.  Walking the dusty roads in his Navy Blues, Julius is picked up and dropped off at Muriel’s house who is mid-intercourse with Lee.  At this point, we are expecting that Julius is about to walk into his home and have his life turned upside down, but in fact he is the one who will disrupt life on the homestead for the recently engaged Muriel and Lee.  The relationship between Julius and Muriel is a strange one, but captivating, as he lounges shirtless on the hood of the car asking her to toss his down a cigarette which she thought she was sneaking in private; the first of many secrets we see her keep from her husband.  As the trio reunites and day wanes into the wee hours of the night, the three commiserate over beers, dance to music, and Muriel, sitting on the porch swing in between the two brothers, reaches out to hold each of their hands. 

Edgar-Jones, despite being a major player in On Swift Horses is saddled with a rather thankless role of housewife.  She is not miserable, but she is unfulfilled and held back by the social norms of the time.  While she does not rail against the system kicking and screaming, she rebels in quieter ways from amassing a secret sum of money at the horse track to lying to her husband about selling the mid-west home, and finally crossing over the line of infidelity, but only in the capacity of a tourist.  It is not that Muriel is never satisfied with what she has, but she is never satisfied with being tied down to anywhere but the family home.  Strangely, though, she is not a character that seems to thrive in the solitude that the old homestead provides, so on the page – at least on the pages of Kass’ script that thankfully does not become a work of voiceover – we never get a good look at her interiority and her motivations come off far too wishy-washy in a way that brings down the performance as far as clarity is concerned. 

Almost an ensemble piece, albeit a small one, the film is still largely filtered through Muriel’s lens, and though she is not the sole narrator, even when Julius is driving the narrative forward, Muriel is always front of mind and he is often working his way back towards her.  Elordi brings a strange quality to the role as what can only be considered a secondary protagonist.  His usual smoldering charm, however, rings differently here. Like whisps of smoke left behind from the embers of Rock Hudson’s fire, Elordi should fit seamlessly into this film, but possibly because aside from Priscilla (2023), this is only his second period piece and dates back to a decade further than when he was “The King,” there is a modernity about him in how he holds himself and certain affectations that ever so slightly send hairline cracks across the immersion.  It is not that there is anything particularly wrong with his performance as he handles the melodrama quite well, but there is an unshakable quality there that makes the performance feel more like dress up as opposed to an immersive experience; something that was avoided in Priscilla because that more explicitly was an act of mimicry whereas here he is asked to breathe life into a character that only ever existed as black and white text on the page.  This same nagging quality affects the entire cast, but none more so than Elordi and Poulter who really struggle to blend into the floral wallpaper or the sheen of a new development brochure.  That being said, Elordi feels most at home when Julius is more of a transient tumbleweed occupying the dingy hotels or the dusty casino loft, so that incongruent quality when he is in contact with the American Dream may be purposeful, just a little too gratuitous that it becomes a blemish. 

Opposite Elordi for much of the film, and a silent usurper for star of the drama, is Calva’s Henry.  The actor comes in at the second act, capturing Julius with a seductive glance and electrifying the narrative with a raw and unpredictable passion that has been sorely missing.  Even in Muriel’s illicit and scandalous affairs, there is a flinch of hesitation on her part and a blanket of coziness brought to the affairs by Sandra; Gail (Kat Cunning), a pleasure seeking, upper-class vixen brings flashes of Henry’s live wire attitude to Muriel’s life, but plays a woefully brief role in the film.  Calva also fits most organically in the frame, acting in the fierce pursuit of his own perversion of the American Dream.  It is an exciting energy, and while Kass utilizes him more as a narrative tool than an actual character, his absence in the third act is undeniable beyond Julius’ pursuit of him in Mexico, but as an audience we are left longing for his charisma to liven up the story again. 

On Swift Horses is a story that can support, and arguably, desperately needed a longer run time to allow these characters across the board to spread and grow into more fully realized people with agency over their own fates that often, tragically, work counter from those who they hold dear.  There is an irony that Poulter’s Lee has the least screentime, the least control in the film, and is most bluntly used as the narrative framework that ties these stories together yet comes away with the most profound and fully realized arc; a testament to the young actor that he does not totally fade into the background.  Kass excels in keeping all of these plates spinning for as long as he does, and the story is never not engaging, but a little more work in developing these characters off of the pages of Pufahl’s novel would have really elevated this work into something truly impressive.  Minahan shows a deep understanding of Sirkian tendencies, being able to more frankly contend with the secret longings and desires than perhaps his predecessors were able to bring to screen, and though Montpellier’s colors are great to see given how dull modern period pieces tend to be shot, they are missing the luscious technicolor depth of Russell Metty’s images, the pros and cons list surrounding this film is long.  It makes it frustrating because this film scratches at greatness and because we fall so immediately and intensely under its spell, that it still feels like a soft landing when all is said and done makes it hard to reckon with, but On Swift Horses is one of those rare films where even criticism levied against it is mostly looking at everything that it does well and longing for more.