The Mustang is one
of those short and low-budget films that most moviegoers will miss. This is unfortunate since it’s probably going
to be a better film than whatever wins the next best picture award. It’s only a 96-minute film, features an actor
from Belgium, Matthias Schoenaerts (not a household name in American films),
and directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre (also not a household name).
I could give away the entire storyline for this movie and
not spoil it for anyone. The Mustang’s two great virtues include its
visual depictions demonstrating the beauties and challenges of living
side-by-side with wild horses, and the acting of Schoenaerts as convict Roman
Coleman.
Roman is doing hard time due to a domestic abuse
incident. The only person who visits him
in prison is his daughter Martha (Gideon Adlon). She has understandable reservations about
Roman since her mother was the victim of Roman’s abuse. The visits are anything but friendly and
usually end in arguments. Martha is
pregnant at the film’s beginning, and we probably can assume that the father of
her unborn child disappeared. Possibly
the only reason she first visits her father at all is so that she can sell a
piece of property for which Roman has an ownership interest.
Roman is incapable of showing warmth or communicating with
anyone. It is only by a fluke he’s
recruited to work with wild horses as part of a prison program. First assigned to shovel manure, Myles (Bruce
Dern), who heads up the program, decides to let Roman work with one specific
horse. Roman calls the horse Marcus
since he can’t pronounce the word “marquis.” This horse has the identical temperament of
Roman. At first, Roman becomes so
frustrated working with the horse that he physically attacks it trying to punch
it into submission. Despite this
setback, Myles still provides Roman another opportunity to work with Marcus.
As the training progresses, we see a change come over Roman as
he becomes accustomed to his job.
Possibly, Roman is the only one who could tame this beast. Another prisoner, Henry (Jason Mitchell),
provides Roman advice along the way and becomes the closest thing to a friend
Roman ever has. And as Roman learns to
adapt to the horse, he also learns how to relate with his daughter who is
coming closer to the delivery time for her child.
What saves The Mustang
from sentimentality is the toughness of the acting and the storyline. Both Schoenaerts and Adlon play their roles
perfectly. Bruce Dern is adequate in
support, though it’s certainly not his finest role. And the storyline remains intense from
beginning of the film until the end.
The Mustang is not
a perfect film only because the filmmakers try to say too much rather than too
little. There are storylines in which the
film possibly would be better without. For
example, his friend Henry is killed for drugs by Roman’s cellmate. This results in Roman attacking his
cellmate. This entire subplot comes
close to melodrama.
Also, when the prisoners demonstrate their horses for
bidders at an auction, a helicopter flies over the arena disturbing Marcus and
leading to Roman being thrown from the horse.
After this, the prison staff decides they should euthanize Marcus. When Roman hears this from Myles, he manages
to break Marcus out of prison and allow him to run free. This leads to consequences for Roman
(probably additional prison time). This storyline
seems somewhat contrived.
While neither of these storylines appeared necessary to the primary
plot, both of these scenes, while showing both Roman and Marcus as untamable, also
portray the two as figures deserving sympathy.
The movie manages to pull off this difficult task. Roman is not someone we want to visit our
home, and Marcus is not the horse we want to take on a joyride. But the film does a magnificent job depicting
these flawed creatures as redeemable living beings.
© Robert S. Miller 2019
April 28, 2019
