‘The Mustang' Review: Familiar Story Somehow Works Due to Lead Performance and Direction

I have to admit that at first, I resisted the first half of director and co-writer Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s “The Mustang” — its on-the-nose social message and familiar narrative felt all-too obvious to this film snob. After all, this is a movie about, gulp, wild men taming wild animals, and truth be told, in lesser hands, this film would have crash landed with a thud instead of actually picking up steam as it goes along. Kudos to not just its talented writer-director, but also French/German actor Matthias Schoenaerts. He stars as Roman, a man haunted by a past in which, in a fit of unadulterated rage, he punched his wife, mentally incapacitating her after her head hit the kitchen sink — this resulted in his being sentenced to 12 years in prison. It’s not like he protested his sentence either; when the parole board asks for his case to be defended, he refuses to abide, feeling all-too guilty for what transpired and for the heartache he caused his daughter, who still visits Daddy but mostly for him to sign forms and releases. Things do change when Roman enrolls in the prison’s horse-training program, and — surprise — makes an emotional connection with a stallion. Of course, Roman hits it off with the most difficult mustang of the bunch, one whose bouts of instantaneous rage are unlike Roman’s. Bruce Dern is also well-cast as Myles, the horse program's grizzled director. The obvious metaphors turn out to be irrelevant as Clermont-Tonnerre slowly, but surely, finds a grip in her story and envelops you with gorgeously lit frames and the grim realities of prison life — you can almost smell the stench of the prison: its stained toilets, concrete walls and the toxic macho posturing all around the corridors. What feels rather murky and uninvolving at first is elevated by a central performance and a director who knows a thing or two about atmosphere. The story may seem ridiculous but by the final frame you’ll be converted. [B-]