Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Lee (Will Poulter) seem like the perfect 1950s young, attractive, white American couple. He’s returned from the Korean War, and after some unnamed hesitation, Muriel has agreed to marry him.
By marrying Lee, Muriel also gets his mysterious brother Julius as part of the package. Lee and Julius, well, they’ve always talked about moving to California, buying a house together, and living the American Dream. When Muriel finally meets Julius (Jacob Elordi), she agrees to the plan, in no small part because she and Julius find an instant connection. Is it sexual? Are they simply kindred spirits? Before Muriel can name what she feels, Julius has left town as quickly as he arrived… so Lee and Muriel move to California without him, always holding emotional and physical space for when he may return.
After these character introductions, On Swift Horses follows two separate storylines. Julius has taken his card hustler instincts to Vegas (which feels a bit like the Wild West) where he eventually talks his way into a job with a casino’s security. Julius and another man named Henry walk in the attic of the casino, peering down at the gambling tables through one-way glass, trying to catch cheaters and sharks. One sweat-soaked day in the attic, Henry falls into Julius’ arms passing out with heatstroke, which in retrospect is an interesting way to make a move. A few scenes later, Julius and Henry are tumbling into bed in a cheap motel. Is it love they fall into, or a gambling partnership with sexual benefits?
Meanwhile, Muriel seems restless, again in a way that she can’t seem to name. She has a job as a waitress where she finds herself eavesdropping on men who meet there regularly. These guys are horsemen who jaw about the races, the jockeys and the horses, chewing over which underdogs will be the best bets. She starts secretly taking notes, then secretly goes to the horse races where she squirrels away her winnings in a hidden envelope… saving for, what she’s not sure. Lee still dreams about buying a house, so Muriel lies and said that she finally sold her mother’s house back in Kansas and hands over some cash from her winnings. Lee is ecstatic. They move into a cute, brand new development. She hides the rest of her money.
But she starts hiding something else. Muriel is sending letters to Julius, trying to figure out their connection. She may be misinterpreting what she feels between them, but she can’t let it go. But she is also intrigued by a young woman named Sandra (Sasha Calle), who has a home just off the highway. Sandra is independent, throws parties with her women-friends that she smirkingly calls a “book club”. There is electricity drawing Muriel to Sandra as well. Looks like Muriel has another secret.
On Swift Horses “reads” a bit like an episodic novel (it’s based on the book by Shannon Pufahl), spending time with Julius, then spending time with Muriel, then back, and forth and back again. So it hinges on how interesting or developed each character is. Jacob Elordi is certainly gorgeous, and his classic Hollywood looks are half of Julius’ appeal. (Julius’ introduction, lying shirtless on the hood of a car in the winter, is imprinted in your head throughout the film.) Beyond his looks that turn the heads of both women and men, Julius seems otherwise a bit of a blank slate, an un-pin-downable character that drifts through life.
But Daisy Edgar-Jones makes more of an impression. Even though we seem to know just as little about Muriel, Edgar-Jones does more with a darting glance, a furrowed brow, or her reaction to a surprising kiss, giving an unspoken depth to a woman trying to figure out her own dreams. Her story… or rather her character is much more interesting than Julius, maybe in no small part due to the fact that women and their roles in society so often get the short shrift in Hollywood stories. I want to know what happened to Muriel after the credits rolled.
This film, it must be said, is gorgeous. The golden, gauzy cinematography makes California indeed look like the land of endless opportunity. The cast is beautiful, and it doesn’t hurt that everyone gets to make out with someone else, even if poor Will Poulter ends up being the fifth wheel. Metaphors of gambling, winning, and losing, and horses make their way into the story in more ways than one… and not all of them are swift. Whether we really know anything about of the characters by the end is questionable, but they sure look good stumbling along, following their hearts.
