*****
Touching Wild Horses was originally released in 2002 and only now finds itself available on DVD. Much of it feels like a TV movie, with that “weekday afternoon, you can see inside the first five minutes where this is going” feel to it. Certainly the story arcs for each character are obvious and inevitable, but there is still plenty of charm in each of the two main performances and some genuinely heart-warming moments as they open up to each other and are able to finally move beyond past pain, guilt, shame, regret and anger.
To be fair, we should expect solid work from Jane Seymour and she manages that, working well with a fairly predictable role. She begins all dour and curmudgeonly, snapping at Mark and resenting his intrusion into her hermetically sealed world. She eventually thaws, to no-one’s great surprise, but at least it is not an abrupt transition and we see elements of her grumpiness remain, even as she warms to Mark.
Mark Rendall also performs well, though it is not hard to see why he has for the most part worked in relatively obscure television rather than films. His work here is of a good standard, but there is nothing here that would suggest that greater things awaited him, as the subsequent development of his career has borne out. He manages the beats of anger, fear, sadness and guilt, but given the eventual revelations of his family and how the tragic car accident arose, we expect his performance to tug at our hearts more than it does.
The film moves relatively briskly through its 90 minute running time and there is certainly insufficient incident in the story to justify anything longer than that. The development of Mark’s relationship with an orphaned foal and its role in his healing moves at a steady and believeable pace and although the concluding voice-over narrated epilogue is a little too tidy and twee for my liking, it does at least tie up the loose ends in a way that seems to suit the overall style and ambitions of the film.
The island on which Fiona lives, which is located off the coast of Nova Scotia, looks suitably harsh and unyielding and although much of the photography is stuck in mid-shot hell, there is at least a strong sense of Fiona and Mark’s isolation. Some wider shots would have been welcome, especially given the beauty of the shots of the ocean at sunrise and sunset, but sadly not quite enough creativity seems to have been employed on the cinematography, even if the production is labouring under a pretty modest budget.
Overall, this is a suitably painless way to spend a lazy afternoon and although it is far from essential viewing, if you like the sound of a film about wild horses bringing healing to wounded souls, this might just be your thing. You can buy or rent it from LoveFilm here and it is out now.
[Rating:2/5]