On Swift Horses

Life pushes some to seek security, others to surrender to chance. This gorgeous adaptation of Shannon Pufahl’s 2019 novel from director Daniel Minahan and screenwriter Bryce Kass extends sympathy to both sensibilities, even when the former can be stifling and the latter can break your heart.

It’s the 1950s. Newlyweds Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Lee (Will Poulter) leave their Kansas home for a new life in San Diego, with steady jobs and a house they can start a family in. Lee’s brother Julius (Jacob Elordi, also at the Festival in Oh, Canada), meanwhile, returns from the Korean War without any long-term plans. A deft hand at poker, he winds up in Las Vegas, where he does pit surveillance at a casino and befriends Henry (Diego Calva, TIFF ’15’s Te prometo anarquía), a handsome Chicano who, like Julius, loves a good gamble. All this time, Muriel and Julius correspond, though neither realize how much they have in common. Bored with waiting tables, Muriel secretly begins playing the horses — and winning. What’s more, Muriel and Julius find themselves on parallel journeys involving clandestine transgressions that could place them in greater danger than either bargained for.

Shot by Canadian maestro Luc Montpellier (TIFF ’22’s Women Talking), On Swift Horses finds rapturous beauty in the décor and accoutrements of the era. Yet what lingers most is the power of its characters’ yearnings, whether secret or boldly declared. This is a story about risking everything for love, only to gain self-knowledge along the way.

ROBYN CITIZEN

Content advisory: violence, sexual content