The Mustang
Another afternoon at the discount theater. Tuesdays are discounted even more! $2.50 admission, and $2.50 each for a small drink and popcorn. All told less than the price of a matinee at the multiplex. Anyway, onto the film.
Equine therapy for hardened criminals. It's a real thing. Prisons across the southwest have programs where inmates learn to break, train, and ride wild mustangs that are captured, with the goal of auctioning them off to ranchers, police, and border patrol with benefits going to help mustangs in the wild. The disposition of these wild horses is a big issue out here.
The movie follows Roman, who has committed a violent act we don't learn about until later in the movie. He's taciturn, has spent most of his 12 years in prison in isolation, and is placed into the program to help him adapt. He's drawn to a horse that is - for lack of a better term - his soul-mate. Anti-social, angry, and unwilling to bend. Though the film is just over 90 minutes, it seems longer, as the relationship between Roman and Marcus (the horse) slowly, haltingly grows. On a few occasions, Roman is visited by his pregnant daughter, and their relationship is even more strained.
Being a prison movie, there's a subplot involving drugs and gang violence that serves a purpose but doesn't really work. There's also no real "name" actors aside from Bruce Dern as the crusty old rodeo cowboy who runs the program, and Connie Britton in a brief role as a counselor. That really helps because it's not a star vehicle. It's an emotional, character driven story. Where it really shines is in the emotions. They're all held back until needed, and when the moments happen - when the horse breaks, when Roman breaks, the poignant ending - they're played very deftly. A lesser film would add sweeping orchestral music to hit you over the head with the message "this is where you're supposed to tear up" but The Mustang doesn't do that.
The only flaw apart from the subplot is that it is a little predictable in the way it unfolds. There's no great surprises. That said, it does a very good job of arriving where you're pretty sure it's going to arrive.
7/10