WILD HORSE NINE: 4 STARS. “a portrait of a lived-in friendship.”
SYNOPSIS: In “Wild Horse Nine,” a new black comedy now in theatres, John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell star as CIA operatives on vacation on Easter Island shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup d’etat. “They got all these big stone heads here,” says Lee (Sam Rockwell). “They remind me of you actually, except they’re quiet.”
CAST: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, Parker Posey. Written and directed by Martin McDonagh.
REVIEW: Writer director Martin McDonagh specializes in finding the absurdist black comedy in the stories of odd couple male relationships. His new film, “Wild Horse Nine,” a tale of two longtime CIA partners nearing the end of their time together, sits on the shelf beside “In Bruges” and “The Banshees of Inisherin,” capturing the complicated affection that comes with years of shared history.
John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell are CIA officers Chris Carlisle and Lee Chesterfield. Chris is the veteran with a checkered past that may, or may not, include an involvement with the Kennedy assassination. “I’ve killed people in countries you can’t even spell,” he says.
He has terminal cancer and is working on a memoir, much to the consternation of CIA bureau chief MJ (Steve Buscemi) who urges Lee to keep Chris from sharing delicate agency secrets by any means necessary.
The freewheeling Chris has loose lips. At the airport in Santiago he chats up two women, college student Monica (Mariana di Girolamo) and her friend Alicia (Ailín Salas), admitting to being a CIA agent.
When word gets back to MJ, the urgency to silence Chris intensifies.
“Wild Horse Nine” is, first and foremost, about the relationship between Chris and Lee. These two eccentric characters are given life by Malkovich and Rockwell, who play them without a hint of caricature. Instead, they provide a portrait of a lived-in friendship, complete with unspoken affection, loyalty and the kind of good-natured bickering that can typify male friendship.
It’s the platonic love story that’s ultimately more important than the political backdrop, or the exotic location. Once again McDonagh, with the help of two award-worthy performances, finds the humanity of fringe characters and allows us to bask in it for the 119-minute runtime. It’s more of a hang-out movie than either “In Bruges” and “The Banshees of Inisherin,” but the pitch-black humor and back-and-forth banter make it time well spent.
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