Cavalli selvaggi

Bad directing. The first thing you notice is too much time between actors giving their lines to each other. I hate that. Duvall's wife can't act. English isn't her first language and may have a small part to do with that, but she rubbed me the wrong way right off the bat. Did not buy her as a ranger and her delivery was too slow as well. Duvall himself made me anxious because of his breathing. He seemed to be straining for each breath, yet lights up a cigarette, cause that's what cowboys do! Did he also allow himself some ad libbing here and there? Scenes were choppy. Fade to black then start up again without any smoothness whatsoever. James Franco is a great actor and besides Harnett was the only one worth watching. I kept wanting to give up so many times watching this but stuck with it.

The first part of the film was a little erratic, jumping abruptly from one situation to another. Not sure if that was intentional or if editing created continuity issues.

Also in the beginning some of the minor actors seemed to be quite literally reading their lines from a teleprompter that wasn't keeping up.

If you stuck with it, things did improve. Duvall both starred in the film and wrote it. He was, as always, excellent and I'm impressed that he (apparently?) came up with the story idea. Possibly he personally had some past demons he wished to put to rest.

It deals with a Texas rancher coming to terms with changing times, a need to address past wrongs and an attempt to reconstitute a family that his attitudes and behavior had torn apart. His efforts are not entirely successful in many ways and yet may have been the catalyst for some painful healing nonetheless.

James Franco was quite good. His acting is so much better when Seth Rogan is not involved. Maybe a hint of James Dean dealing with father-son alienation but with more understated drama. Josh Hartnett was also excellent.

It is not really a feel-good sort of movie, but there is a comforting sense that some things are changing for the better no matter how painful the process.

"Don't ever forget the obvious. Those clues will lead you to where you need to be." Scott Briggs (Duvall) is a rancher who comes home and finds something he doesn't like. His emotions get the better of him and something terrible happens. 15 years later an investigator shows up and begins to ask questions about his past. Now Scott is forced to try and hide the truth from everyone while trying to help his family. First and foremost this is a good movie. That said Duvall is starting to fall into the legend trap. By that I mean he is really doing a characteture of himself in every movie lately. He is still great but the person he plays in Night in Old Mexico and this one is pretty much the same person. That is not a bad thing, but it also takes away from the personalization of the movie. Also much like Night in Old Mexico this is not a western even though the cover seems like it is. All that said, the movie is very good and if you liked Night in Old Mexico you will like this as well. Overall, an enjoyable movie to watch, but Duvall really seems to be phoning in every one of his performances lately. I give this a B.

Those seeking for a detective movie might be disappointed. Wild Horses is first and foremost a family drama, while the investigation part takes secondary priority. It provides solid emotional scenes, mainly thanks to the veteran cast and the personal premise, although the pace is unfortunately slow. It may not appeal to anyone since it will take nearly an hour before the momentum actually builds up, furthermore the crime element is considerably weak.

Story follows the sheriff from small desert town who opens a cold case concerning a missing boy. It happened fifteen years ago, so understandably it rattles some people, especially the Briggs family. It becomes clear early on that Luciana Pedraza as the sheriff is not in the same league as the rest of the cast, which is unfortunate since her perspective, while not in the same volume of the family's, is still crucial to the plot.

Additionally, there is very thin material for the crime aspect, it could have been skimped to minor subplot, yet the movie invests quite a lot on the police angle. The rest of the time is focused on dialogues in the Briggs family. The Briggs are very rich family and very patriarchy, they also harbors a lot of secrets. Duvall plays as Scott, the head of the family and he delivers a very convincing performance. He keeps the interest of his family first, although this might collide with the tragedy of the past.

Josh Hartnett has added depth on his character. He looks straightforward or rigid, but can also be passionately aggressive. The youngest son Ben is played by James Franco and he might be hust the nicest and honest amongst all. Between the three of them the acting is highly presentable, but since the screenplay consists of slow pace conversations, it can be tedious at times.

It has the good intention on delivering very private issue by the perspective of an entire family. However, the inconsistent delivery and tired pacing might not be refined enough to deliver the intended message.

What attracted me to this film was the name Robert Duvall , who is almost certainly America's greatest living character actor . Add to that he also directed WILD HORSES so this looked like a film worth going out of my way to see and while not being a complete waste of time I expected better

In reply to my fellow IMDb peer Arfdawg I agree the actress playing the lead Texas Ranger is rather dreadful . The actress birth name was Luciana Pedraza and is now known as Luciana Duvall . I guess that answers a few questions doesn't it ? Despite having a few other well known names in the shape of Franco and Hartnett most of the story is told via Pedraza/Duvall's female Ranger and she's just not a good enough actress to carry the film and gives a very wooden and stilted performance which becomes annoying . On top of that the film moves at a very slow pace which made me think the director was copying wholesale the Coens' style from NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN . Unlike that film WILD HORSES is far from compelling and feels like two separate stories , one featuring a crime drama and one featuring a angst ridden family drama stuck together in a rather unsatisfying manner and means we're left with an unsatisfying film