Film

On Friday, I walked into the city centre to be at the lunchtime screening of "Wild Horse Nine" in The Showroom - my favourite  local cinema. Starring John Malcovich and Sam Rockwell and directed by Martin McDonagh,  it is a dark comedy with a political edge set in Chile in 1973.  Many people do not realise that the most westerly part of Chile is Easter Island - 2330 miles across the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Malcovich plays the part of Chris and Rockwell plays the part of Lee. They are CIA agents involved in the pending overthrow of Salvador Allende's democratically elected left wing government. They have been planted in Chile for many months. For some reason - it is never explained why - their boss sends them to Easter Island.

It was this factor that drew me to the film because I spent a happy week on Easter Island seventeen years ago - an experience that meant the world to me. Surely the film's use of Easter Island as a backdrop would bring back some special memories.

And that did happen. There were some great shots but in a sense being on Easter Island was quite incidental with regard to the plot. Chris even refuses to use the word "moai" to describe the iconic stone figures, opting to call them "big heads" instead. We don't really tap into the mystery or the history of Easter Island - well that's not the purpose of "Wild Horse Nine" anyway.

Wild horses do appear in the film and have a fairly significant role to play in the drama. It put me in mind of the day I was inside the crater of Rano Raraku  - an extinct, low-lying volcano with an open side. There's a small lake there now. As I was photographing two unfinished moai statues, I heard the thundering of hooves behind me and a herd of twenty or so brown horses arrived at the lake to drink. It was a thrilling moment.

Getting back to the film, although there were some pleasing features and moments, I ultimately found it quite irritating. It moves along at a laconic pace and it contains some rather gratuitous killing. 

I like most films to be believable so wondered how Chris (Malcovich) was able to have three changes of clothes when he boarded the LAN plane at Santiago with just a small suitcase. And magically, he had another case containing a rifle. How did he get that on the plane? And how come phone lines home were so clear and reliable? After all, it was meant to be 1973!

A lot of suspension of disbelief was required but that was not the fault of the two lead actors. They played their given parts well. There was even a cameo role for the legendary singer-songwriter Tom Waits, Chris's grumpy brother Jim, who resides in a very lonesome cabin in Arizona. Chris phones him from the island to tell him about his terminal cancer diagnosis.

I know that some film critics have raved about "Wild Horse Nine" but not for me I'm afraid. Too light, slow and silly in spite of the awesome setting... Easter Island or as descendants of the original inhabitants still prefer to call it - Rapa Nui.