Wild Horse Nine
In the days before Santiago stationed CIA agents Chris (John Malkovich, "Dangerous Liaisons," "RED") and Lee (Sam Rockwell, "Seven Psychopaths," "3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri") are slated to help orchestrate the overthrow of Chile's democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, a coup d'état that led to almost two decades of oppression, torture and murder by an authoritarian military led by Pinochet, Chris, who is dying, asks his partner to take a trip to "Easter Island" where he wants the younger man to end his life in "Wild Horse Nine."
Laura's Review: B+
Writer/director Martin McDonagh ("3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," "The Banshees of Inisherin") returns with a black comedy that is identical to his 2008 film "In Bruges" in so many ways it almost feels like a remake. Fortunately, "In Bruges" is the filmmaker's best work and he's chosen a great cast and an even more unique vacation destination to set it in. As the dying agent who took part in every important covert operation during the Cold War, including the assassination of JFK, Chris is full of regrets, at least when he can remember things, which he is trying to counteract by recording all of his memories on a Dictaphone. That has CIA Bureau Chief
MJ (Steve Buscemi, "Fargo," "Happy Gilmore 2") sweating bullets, especially as it has long been thought that Chris knows the whereabouts of a certain rifle. And so Lee, Chris' frustrated friend who has also been archiving the man's thoughts on Super 8mm, finds himself in the middle of two men who want the same man gone for different reasons.
Despite his regrets, Chris is still the same man and he enjoys pushing buttons, as evinced by his careless banter with two young women at the departures gate, Monica (Mariana Di Girolamo, "Ema") and Alicia (Ailín Salas), who he asks how they are enjoying their new left wing president, adding 'enjoy him while you can.' 'Are you CIA?' asks Monica. 'Yes, we came to destabilize your democracy,' he answers as Lee panics. He also smirks when Monica tells him Easter Island is known indigenously as Rapa Nui, the word 'indigenous' setting him off.
Upon arrival, Chris immediately wants to go see 'the big heads,' but Lee drives them to their adjoining cabins to settle in first. Lee calls his wife Margie (Parker Posey, "Beau Is Afraid," 2025's 'The White Lotus') back home in the desert, Margie hysterical because she believes someone's broken into their house, Manson gang 'creepy crawl' style, but Lee brushes that aside, at least for the moment. While Lee's love life appears to be on the rocks, he's astonished when Chris spies Monica on the beach, approaches her, and is welcomed to join her. The two pals will end up going their own ways, Chris joining Monica to hear a folk singer (and advise her not to return to Santiago amid other things like 'never let them get you into a car') and to engage with the wild horses who traverse the island, Lee left to deal with M.J., who has engaged hotel receptionist Rosa (Paola Giannini, "Ema") to spy for him in Chris' cabin (Lee finds both her and a handwritten note saying 'Don't trust Lee'). When the two old friends do get together, it is for Chris to reminisce about things like how much he had liked Patrice Lumumba, how no one 'remembers the black presidents,' and that they should come up with a code word for when Lee is to shoot Chris, settling on 'Arkansas.' Then Lee finds out M.J. is on his way to the island, he wants Chris gone and his and Margie's house has been turned inside out just as Chris decides he'd never meant to go to Easter Island, wishing to be in Venice instead.
If the donkey Jenny was poignant symbolism in "The Banshees of Inisherin," here that role is played by a wild horse who engages with Chris one night as he looks up at the stars contemplating suicide, just before he notices a car stopped on the road surveilling him and shoots out its back window instead. As in "In Bruge," Catholicism also comes into play, Chris wanting Lee to kill him to avoid that very act of suicide for religious reasons (oh the irony). There are also echoes of the Irish in Carter Burwell's ("The Banshees of Inisherin") melancholy, lilting score. But this film belongs to its costars, Malkovich wavering between regret and defiance, letting us see the light slowly dim in his eyes while Rockwell provides jittery comic relief trying to hold everything together as it spirals apart. The film also stars Tom Waitts ("Seven Psychopaths," "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs") as Chris' estranged brother Jim living in Monument Valley, their goodbye phone call another idiosyncratic example of McDonagh's humor.
"Wild Horse Nine" finds its place in the middle of McDonagh's filmography, but Malkovich's dreamy, rueful leave taking stays with you long after it's over.
Searchlight releases "Wild Horse Nine" in theaters on 11/6/26.
