Set in West Ireland “Calm With Horses” is Nick Rowland’s first feature film. Rowland has up until this point focused on television and has 'Hard Sun', 'Ripper Street' and 'Cuffs' (all on the BBC). He chose to cut his teeth on a gritty crime drama with the plot concentrated around a small town and the Devers family who are the local family of gangsters.
The film is based on the book by Colin Barrett of the same name – being published under the collection titled “Young Skins” – and is the fascinating tale of Douglas or “Arm” (Cosmo Jarvis) as he is known to the Devers family who employ him. He is the muscle for Dympna Devers (Barry Keoghan) and as an ex-boxer with some potential he provides that role with ease. Indeed the opening sequence involves Dympna instructing Arm to resolve a dispute with a local man who has betrayed the family and needs to be taught a lesson.
On the face of it my initial impressions of “Calm With Horses” was that this was simply another gangster movie with gratuitous violence and very little substance behind it. However, nothing could be further from the truth as the complexity of the character Arm evolves.
As with most gangster families there was a hierarchy in the Devers clan – Arm’s employer Dympna is very much at the bottom of the food chain in this regard. Both his uncles Hector Devers (David Wilmot) and Paudi Devers (Ned Dennehy) are much higher with the latter clearly being the top dog and absolutely mad to go with it.
Arm was convinced to become part of the Devers gang when he retired from boxing, not only does he work for them for little or no money but he also lives with the family – they took him in at a time when he was vulnerable and Dympna in particular takes full advantage of this, not least by plying him with large quantities of drugs to convince him to perform the acts of violence.
The softer side to Arm comes out when he visits his five year old son Jack (Kiljan Tyr Moroney) and his former girlfriend Ursula (Niamh Algar) who is also Jack’s mother. Jack has some learning difficulties that Arm finds it hard to come to terms with but is happiest when he is riding horses – hence the title of the film. Ursula has a difficult relationship with Arm because of his involvement with the Devers but clearly still cares very much for him and would no doubt take him back if he could shake himself free from his current lifestyle. Arm clearly longs to be a more reliable father but Dympna always manages to ruin any chance of this being a reality – with Ursula wanting to start a new life in Cork, there is an inevitability about Arm not being part of Jack’s life once they move.
“Calm With Horses” is a fast paced drama but not a gangster film, it is a story that explores a number of the characters and lets the audience into their thoughts and desires. It is much deeper than many similar productions with Rowland giving just as much attention to the emotional side of Arm as it does to the violent one. Jarvis plays the role of Arm with just about the right amount of brawn but more than enough vulnerability to make us realise the underlying good man who is trying to escape.
The film had something of a predictable ending but taking this aside for a moment, it was a thoroughly enjoyable film with much more soul and depth than you can expect from similar efforts in this genre. Some excellent supporting performances, particularly from Algar and Dennehy just add to the whole experience.
Calm With Horses is released in cinemas nationwide tomorrow.
Reviewer - John Fish
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