In the dark comedy Wild Horse Nine, Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) are CIA assassins in Chile just before the 1973 Pinochet coup, which they are abetting. They take a holiday flight to Chile’s most distant territory, Easter Island. Why? Chris has a very personal reason, and Lee, his younger buddy, is coming along for support.
Chris just doesn’t give a damn anymore – and he has a sound reason not to. But he has become completely unfiltered, and Lee has to keep rushing him out of earshot when he makes public pronouncements like “We’re here to destabilize your democracy.“
Given their profession, it’s no surprise that the two are cynical and ruthless. However, circumstances now prompt Chris to reflect on a life filled with moral transgressions. Is redemption even possible for such a man? He may get the chance to save the life of an innocent, a final opportunity for at least some redemption.
Easter Island is a place that everybody has heard of and nobody has been to. Neither Chris nor Lee has any interest in history or art, and it’s pretty funny watching them touring the island’s ancient giant stone heads. There’s plenty of fish-out-of-water humor, and, because Chris is an inveterate provocateur, the two bicker more than Felix and Oscar.
The wit is typical of writer-director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin).
Wild Horse Nine is a showcase for John Malkovich, whose performance as Chris, with his irascibility, unpredictability and menacing grin. is indelible.
Rockwell is the perfect comic foil. Steve Buscemi is very funny as Chris and Lee’s bureaucratically weary, but matter-of-factly unhinged boss. In a masterstroke of casting, Tom Waits has a wonderful cameo as Chris’ long-estranged brother. Parker Posey, a welcome addition to any movie, is stuck in a one-dimensional role here.
All in all, Wild Horse Nine is a fun movie, but it’s John Malkovich who makes it worth a trip to the theater.