‘Calm with Horses’ – Review

Calm with Horses recently made a slam appearance onto our Netflix homepages, and what an arrival it was. Despite it being an Irish film, I didn’t know much about the plot before going in; I had only seen posters promoting the movie pasted outside lonely, abandoned cinemas during the first lockdown. I was expecting something perhaps a little similar to Cardboard Gangsters which, although an impressive feat, didn’t quite live up to expectations. Calm with Horses, however, completely exceeded my expectations, and was a wonderfully dark and violent experience.

 

The film is set against a stunning but grim backdrop of a lush green but deadly rural Ireland, where we meet Arm; a former boxer who now works for a notorious local crime family. Arm is trying to support his autistic son who will soon be moving away with his mother, Arm’s ex. Arm is desperate to prove himself as worthy of looking after Jack, in the hopes that they will stay. This heartfelt domestic drama is juxtaposed with Arm’s involvement with the drug-dealing Devers family, growing increasingly dangerous as his “partner”, Dymphna, instructs him to kill someone - and Arm can't go through with it.

The acting in this film is very impressive. Everyone is very natural, and they were all believable in their roles. The violence was perfect; terrifying, without being too over the top. The build-up of tension is at a near-perfect balance, building and building until it comes to an ultimate explosion - one or two moments reminded me of Goodfellas. Particularly, of the best scenes of Joe Pesci. And – very slight spoiler alert – this was the first film in a long time that actually made me cry. So, if you’re already completely over Halloween movies and looking for something exciting to cleanse your palette, I would absolutely recommend this masterful film, which I can only applaud.