Filmworld
'Broken Horses' - Intelligently tamed
By
Troy RibeiroFilm: "Broken Horses"; Cast:
Christopher George Marquetter, Anton Yelchin, Vincent D'Onofrio, Maria
Valverde, Seean Patrick Flanery, Jordi Caballero, Thomas Jane, Henry
Shotwell; Director: Vidhu Vinod Chopra; Rating: ***1/2
Vidhu
Vinod Chopra's English Film "Broken Horses" is a different, yet
emotionally packed take on the American Wild West, set somewhere near
the Mexican border.
With heavy doses of bromance, the tale delves
on the bond between two orphaned brothers. It explores their sensitive
and caring nature towards each other.
Narrated in a linear
fashion, it is the story of Buddy Heckum, a sensitively hooked slow
learner, his musically inclined younger brother Jacob Heckum, who is
also known as Jackey, and a conniving gangster Julius Hench, who in
order to safeguard his own interests tries to separate the two
brothers. This forms the crux of the tale.
Fifteen years ago
after the death of their father Gabriel Heckum, the Sheriff of this
border town, the boys are left to fend for themselves. Julius takes
Buddy under his wings and instigates him with, "There are lots of bad
people out there, somebody got to stop them... Miguel Stanton killed
your dad and you cannot let him get away. You kill him."
Buddy
takes revenge. This "job" was his initiation into the crime world. And
in order to protect Jackey from his world of crime, the ever caring
older brother packs him off to New York to let him pursue his dream of
becoming a violinist.
Years later, Jackey plans to get married and settle down with Vittoria (Maria Valverde).
Buddy
insists that Jackey return home to have a look at the surprise wedding
gift he has in store for them. The gift was "a promise he had made".
Jackey
obliges. It is then, when he is in his hometown, that Jackey learns
about Julius' sinister plan and the film garners momentum.
"Broken
Horses" is Christopher G. Marquette's turf. He engages you as Buddy and
gets you hooked. He alternates between a simpleton and a pigheaded
revenge-seeking mercenary hitman with equal ease and grace.
Anton Yelchin as his younger brother is sincere. The fear and concern for his brother is palpable on screen.
Of
the rest of the cast, Sean Patrick Flanery as Jackey's music teacher,
with his amputated legs is a bit dramatic and unconvincing. Maria
Valverde as Vittoria, the only woman in the male bastion to have some
credible screen moments, is functional.
There are some subtle
emotional moments between Buddy and her which are touching. Vincent
D'Onofirio as the sweet talking, pyrophobic villain is not at all
menacing.
With not enough weightage given to the sub-plots, the
overall piling of the plot seems superficial and shallow, especially the
passage when Jackey goes to interview Mario Garza, the rival gangster.
Also, the metaphor used in that scene is trite and oft seen in gangster
films.
Though this is an original story by Vinod Vidhu Chopra,
"Broken Horses" finds its genesis in numerous older films, which
includes Chopra's earlier film "Parinda." But what makes it stand apart
is its treatment.
The intelligently written screenplay and
dialogues, especially the summation of the title of the film, by Chopra
and Abhijat Joshi, more than make up for the deficit in the design
scheme.
Tom Stern's camera work is excellent. He has a flare for
wide angled panoramic shots. Some of the shots of the Wild West and
Jackey's Ranch, captured in the twilight zone are worth noticing. So is
the underwater shot during the climax.
Well mounted with good
production and technical values, the film has an inexplicable gentleness
to the narration, very characteristic of Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It will
appeal to the emotionally inclined.