ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

classicsoncall Robert Duvall wrote, directed and starred in "Wild Horses", a modern day Western that has little bearing between the title and actual story taking place. It's sort of a family drama interspersed with a criminal investigation focused on Duvall's character, ranch owner Scott Briggs. Until I read some of the other reviews here, I didn't know the actress Luciana Pedraza was Duvall's real life wife. She's the Texas Ranger attempting to link Briggs with the disappearance and presumed murder of a Mexican teenager who had a relationship with Briggs's son Ben (James Franco) some fifteen years earlier. With the cold case reopened, Briggs is caught up short and scrambles to keep himself in the clear about what happened so many years ago.I'm not as upset about the film as a lot of commenters on this board seem to be. Duvall may be settling into a comfortable pattern of characters in his latest movie roles, but that's no reason to fault his ability. He delivers his lines with nuance and determination, and I for one don't mind the pacing of his pictures like "A Night in Old Mexico" and the one under consideration here.What kept me off balance however was Franco's portrayal of son Ben. Alternately conflicted and reconciled with his father over his own sexual identity, his motivation in telling the elder Briggs he never wanted to see him again after the truth came out about the Davis death didn't ring true for me. After all, Briggs didn't actually kill Davis, it was a horrible accident for which he was present and might have borne second or third degree culpability. If anything, his 'crime' was remaining silent for the last decade and a half, but coming clean seemed like what should have been a redemptive moment. I guess what I'm saying is that that whole scenario needed a better working over to come across more effectively.As it is, when Scott Briggs pulled over on the side of the road, I felt he had already telegraphed the outcome of the movie. The off screen gun shot brought his personal ordeal and anguish to an end, and if you think about it, not many actors would write themselves into a screenplay in which they come out as a failed human being. Give Duvall credit at least for taking that kind of risk near the end of a long and productive career.

Saiph90 When you have Robert Duvall, James Franco and Josh Hartnett it would be a challenge to make a bad movie, while this is not a horrendous film it has a huge amount of flaws. Casting your wife in the film might earn you brownie points but she takes wooden to a whole new level. I can only presume the director wanted her to spend the film acting like a trauma victim. This was a real disjointed film with things thrown in which added nothing to the plot, what was going on with Josh Harnett and his wife? someone tries to murder a Texas Ranger and nothing is done or even discussed, what did the Will scene add to the film? Some excellent cinematography of the mountains and plains can not rescue the film, it is poorly paced with little tension and an awful script some of the support actors appear to be reading from cue cards. The central 'reveal' is mundane and a bit stupid, you are chased from a house by a gun toting redneck so you hide in the barn? then when the horse kick kills him Robert Duvall thinks it is a good idea to bury the body? it makes no sense. Shame with the talent available we ended with entirely forgettable film

Robert D. Ruplenas What a disappointment this movie is, on so many levels. Even though the story line carries through from beginning to end, the transitions between scenes are so disjointed that we are never sure of just what is happening at any moment. As far as Luciana Pedraza, I'm sure that, as his wife, Duvall loves her very much. However this does not change the fact that she cannot act worth a damn, and forget what viewers have said about her flat and colorless performance being "in character." As far as Duvall himself, the glory days of Godfather, Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (his finest effort), True Confessions and so many others appear to be over. He seems to have become content settling into playing the same crotchety old redneck with the same mannerisms over and over, as in Get Low, Jayne Mansfield's Car, A Night in Old Mexico and The Judge (though the latter is rather a good flick). The story itself is clearly supposed to be a moving one about tragic self-awareness, but the emotionless execution left me very dry-eyed. There is some beautiful cinematography of the midwestern vistas, but that's not enough to redeem the movie. Don't waste your time.

debigoldben The only thing about this movie that's decent is the plot ... which could have been a great movie. The rest of it is disjointed and just plain awful. Even Robert Duvall's performance is sub-par. Everyone's acting is stiff and forced ... like they were still blocking it out and not ready. There is no flow in the delivery of the lines or in the movement of the script from one scene to the next ... even the story jumps and is confusing at times ... like it's several movies spliced together. Some of the "main characters" are move like live props ... adding little or no meaning to the plot ... they could have easily been eliminated. It's almost like this was a cast made up of friends and family who wanted "15 minutes of fame". I almost never write reviews, but this was just plain BAD.