At The Movies with James Phelan: Peach of a role could cap Malkovich's career with an Oscar
John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell in Wild Horse Nine. Photo: Searchlight Pictures/Diego Araya Corvalán
If there were traits for being the worst secret agent imaginable, John Malkovich’s Chris would embody them all. As a CIA operative in Chile in 1973, he is volatile, indiscreet, unfiltered and even openly boastful about his supposedly secret past exploits, current activity and future plans.
Chris is coming to the end of his career and as it turns out hurtling towards the end of his life. But his life expectancy might be truncated further by his increasingly loose tongue and devil may care attitude.
His desire to write a memoir about his career as a spook is the final straw for his bureau chief MJ (Steve Buscemi). Chris and his long-suffering younger partner Lee (Sam Rockwell) are sent on an agency-sanctioned vacation to Easter Island. As the men effectively take a break from scheming to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Chile, Lee wants to fly under the radar during this tropical getaway. Meanwhile, Chris might as well have a megaphone and a neon sign that announces his occupation and agenda.
Lee is tasked with monitoring his mentor and eliminating any record of Chris’ autobiography, even if that involves eliminating the author too. This weighs heavily on Lee who knows the older operative is suffering from a cancer that already amounts to a death sentence.
Amusingly, this is at least the second time in his onscreen career that a Malkovich character threatening to write a spy craft memoir has caused consternation and carnage. A similar decision in the vastly underrated Coen Brothers espionage comedy ‘Burn After Reading’ brought similar chaos to Washington DC.
In fact, Malkovich’s character’s pronunciation of even the word ‘memoir’ in ‘Burn After Reading’ is so priceless I wish it were reprised here. It would have been a great in-joke but in fairness writer/director Martin McDonagh is so busy referencing his own movies that he has little time for other people’s.
And here’s the rub, the constituent parts of this film undeniably look like an amalgam of his previous films. There’s an irrefutable bang of ‘In Bruges’ about two killers taking an enforced holiday together. Add in an island setting redolent of ‘Banshees of Inisherin’. And there’s even an echo of Woody Harrelson’s terminally ill sheriff from ‘Three Billboards’. This might indicate a cobbling together of previously used elements but instead I think the writer/director changing the characters, the principal location and the era brings enough freshness to the underlying ingredients.
Within the film, McDonagh also riffs on recurring concerns as, for example, he once more has characters fixated on dwarves. In the same vein, he has an early dig at political correctness as both men take complete umbrage at the mere use of the word ‘indigenous’. Other flights of dialogue fancy include reflecting on how "the gayest countries have the best cheeses" and some pondering about the potential afterlife of moths.
This is, in many ways, a relaxed movie. It feels like a hang out with bickering buddies who shoot the breeze and occasionally shoot people. Yet the film is also soaked in regret and anger too. Set only a decade after the Kennedy assassination, there are frequent reflections on how that was a turning point for the American nation. There are regular mentions of Dallas and even the suggestion that Chris was involved on that fateful day.
Towards the end, in one electric speech from Chris, all the japery and esoteric musings fall away as the veteran operative coldly outlines the bracing truth about how already planned brutalities will play out within Chile within months. It’s a moment that pierces the heart and head.
It’s a peach of a role for Malkovich. It could cap his career with an Oscar next year. Recent winner Sam Rockwell still manages to shine in support as he lobs up set-ups for his acting buddy to spike. As for McDonagh, it’s a case of where and when to next on his world tour. Sign me up blind because his movies are always a trip.
