'Calm With Horses' Tries To Run Away From The Mob, But Its Best As An Irish Gangster Vehicle For Barry Keoghan [TIFF Review]

There’s no reward without risk, but nonetheless, attempting two different and disparate styles in a movie can be dicey endeavor that can go sideways without balance. “Calm With Horses,” starring Cosmo Jarvis (“Annihilation,” “Lady Macbeth”) and Barry Keoghan (“Dunkirk,” “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”) — in a showy, scene-stealing supporting performance that reinforces just what a giant talent he is — plays its hand at being both a gravelly Irish mob thriller and a quiet, character-driven domestic drama. But “Calm With Horses” only really succeeds as the former; while the craft is sometimes bluntly effective, its formula is a little tired.

Sadly, despite its best intentions, “Calm With Horses”— the directorial debut of BBC director Nick Rowland — comes off as a try-hard Ken Loach movie packed with elements of a stylish crime flick ala Stephen Frears’ “The Hit.” That’s a brave mashup and there’s bold, aesthetic confidence in the resolute filmmaking, but its more intimate, familial conflict scenes just aren’t as successful; until the finale that is, an intense scorcher followed by a tender denouement. If only the lead up to this terrific conclusion didn’t feel like it was dragging its feet in such familiar territory.

Rowland’s film is plagued by a few too many conventional tropes. Set in the fictional town of Glanbeigh, Ireland, Jarvis plays Douglas “Arm” Armstrong, a once-prodigious boxer who could have been a contender (of course) but forfeit his career when something deeply unfortunate happened (sounds about right). He’s now a heavy-hitting enforcer who works with Dympna (Keoghan) — a cocky, posturing Christopher Moltisanti-type — making drug runs for his uncles Hector (David Wilmot) and Paudi (Ned Dennehy), who run the family business from their seedy farm with guns and guard dogs.

When the film begins, Arm is sent to remind a man named Fannigan (Liam Carney) to whom his loyalties lay—jump cuts accentuating the “don’t forget who owns you and who you owe money to” beating. After, Arm brings a large plasma television over to his ex-girlfriend Ursula’s (Niamh Algar) house to visit their young, autistic son. She tells him to get the TV out of her house (I mean, he’s holding it with a pair of bloody knuckles) and that she plans to move to a different part of Ireland where their boy can attend a special school, away from Arm’s lot in life. Soon, Dympna’s uncles ask for the Fannigan job to be finished; only Arm has never been asked to kill someone before.

As you probably gathered, the film cuts back and forth between our lead trying to insert himself back into his sons life—to learn how he can be a better father—and his interior struggle to fight back against his criminal responsibilities, often revealing the sad, dank underbelly of drugged-out, seaside, Irish mob life. The style of the movie is focused in part but fluctuates in an unsteady manner. Cars and characters are framed from a distance, appearing small against the backdrop of foggy dew and country homes; these compositions almost evoking the feeling of a calm painting, contrasting against handheld mob action and moments of violent explosion. There’s a car chase sequence towards the end of the film that is incredibly tense, originally staged and viscerally shot; it’s just this amazing crescendo appears to belong to in a different movie.

The crime thriller elements feel like they’re partly trailing after sedate gangster films of a more meditative aesthetic (something like “Animal Kingdom”) yet the movie is also chasing gritty and hardcore thriller territory (a la ‘The Pusher Trilogy’). “Calm With Horses” almost always feels like its fighting against itself. For every flashy film technique there’s a scene of self-reflection by stripping all the style away— characters standing and talk in front of horses about their family’s future.

But anyone who’s familiar with Barry Keoghan’s recent work probably doesn’t need to be told why he’s so great as an off the rails, simmering, young gangster archetype. Dympna desperately craves his big boy stripes, to earn a reputation; but he’s all swagger, hiding behind meat shields, insecurities and the power of crime family nepotism. The character’s fashion choices — rings, chain necklaces, over-sized jackets, and poorly-dyed, bleach blonde hair — add a level of flavor and fullness such singular, over-the-top, odd charisma that Keoghan brings to the table.

Cosmo Jarvis, on the other hand, doesn’t seem like he’s quite up to the task of leading the movie by embodying a powerful presence of personal demons, while also housing an introspective sense of self-reflection; at least for the first hour and a half. When the finale rolls around, Jarvis pulls out an amazing performance for the film’s culminating stretch. If only Rowland’s film had managed to establish such emotional turmoil and dire tension in the narrative earlier, he perhaps could have overcome some cliché missteps and storytelling shortcomings. “Calm With Horses” isn’t a bad movie, it’s just two movies you’ve seen before, and the Ken Loach kitchen-sink thing never works as well as the exhausted mob sob story. [C+]

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