Wild Horses (2015)

As a genuine movie enthusiast, I can usually find something worthwhile in a movie... maybe it's an intriguing premise, even if it hasn't been at all well realised... maybe good performances elevate a hackneyed script... maybe there's great cinematography, if nothing else. But Wild Horses defies you to engage with it at every turn. It utterly fails to deliver as the psychological thriller it seems to aspire to be. The script offers no surprises or delights. The pace is so sluggish it often seems more like a rough cut than a finished film. And the female lead - Mrs Duval - gives the most amateurish performance seen in a Hollywood release in some decades. Mr Duval does his usual taciturn schtick to absolutely zero effect. And only James Franco seems to be investing his role with some genuine emotion and enthusiasm - perhaps in the misguided belief that it might be worth the effort. The up side to the boredom that the film generates is that you won't care when it fails to deliver any kind of satisfying ending. Best avoided.

I have nothing but love and respect for Duvall, he has always been one of my favorites! Franco, and Hartnett are great as well.Now for my review.That female Ranger, the kids, and the latino mother asking about her son, as well as the fake tough guys.. Terrible actors, and have absolutely no business on screen!!! Obviously not smart enough to remember their lines, and always reading from cue cards. I made my IMDb account, just to leave this review. Absolutely the most horrid acting I have ever seen!!! Shame on you Robert for putting most of these fools in your movie, and especially the two Rangers!! Sheesh!!! I get that you are very old, and got yourself a pretty young ole lady, and she probably forced you to put her in a movie.. You should have told her no haha.. She is terrible!!!! She should stick to whatever she did before, cause obviously acting isn't for her.. Maybe underwear model? But actor?? Maybe as an extra walking by and zero lines! Just wow.... I wanna turn the movie off, and only 45 minutes into it, but I figure I may as well finish and get my money's worth since we bought the movie... I will be sure to avoid any movie Robert writes, directs, or has her on. Total robot reject..

Robert Duvall directs this story of a rancher coming to grips with story of his life, and the debts he owes to his family and the people he has wronged. It comes with a cast of incredibly well-known and unknown actors. The cohesion of this ensemble's performance is one of the best examples of well-balanced acting that I have seen in a long time. Every brief conversation and every scene had a treasure of detail and story, and each player does their part beautifully. After looking around online I became more than a little tired of the shallow and ludicrously hostile reviews that seem to follow this film across the internet. Thankfully, deeply stupid reviews cannot diminish the quality of this film because those reviews have no legitimate basis for their criticism. No performance that tries to deal so honestly with its audience gets away with it. There are just too many people looking for that saturated over-the-rainbow technicolor dream. This film unfolds in such a deceptively raw style that many people seem to have failed to grasp what a focused and skilled a piece of storytelling is right in front of them. There's quite a bit in this film that makes people uncomfortable. There are serious issues- about the border, about lies, about loss, about discrimination, and the heaven and hell of family ties. And the actors just come right at it all. Not one character is reduced to a silent chew spitting silhouette of cowboy or cowgirl. I believe that the more you tell the truth to yourself and others, the more you will able to see when people are being honest with you. I liked this film, and I am glad it was made. And I thank everyone involved in making it.

The only thing about this movie that's decent is the plot ... which could have been a great movie. The rest of it is disjointed and just plain awful. Even Robert Duvall's performance is sub-par. Everyone's acting is stiff and forced ... like they were still blocking it out and not ready. There is no flow in the delivery of the lines or in the movement of the script from one scene to the next ... even the story jumps and is confusing at times ... like it's several movies spliced together. Some of the "main characters" are move like live props ... adding little or no meaning to the plot ... they could have easily been eliminated. It's almost like this was a cast made up of friends and family who wanted "15 minutes of fame". I almost never write reviews, but this was just plain BAD.