On Fatherhood and Family ★★★★☆
Film Editor Oliver Weir reviews Nick Rowland's debut feature film 'Calm With Horses' which is streaming on Netflix now
Directed by: Nick Rowland
Year of Release: 2019
Starring: Cosmo Jarvis; Barry Keoghan; Niamh Algar; Ned Dennehy; David Wilmot; Simone Kirby
Calm With Horses
★★★★
- Where: Netflix
- When: Forseeable future
- Cost: Netflix subscription fee
Calm With Horses came out earlier this year, but it has now made its way on to Netflix. Set in Ireland, it tells the story of Douglas ‘Arm’ Armstrong: a father to an autistic child in a broken home and the loyal enforcer for the Devers crime family. As the Dever’s requests of Arm become more violent, he must pick between his loyalties and decide how to play his rotten hand. Cosmo Jarvis brilliantly reflects the two halves of Arm’s life. While he is constantly struggling to prove himself to the Devers and to meet their needs, the people he really tries to impress are his ex-partner and his son. Around them he is thoughtful, witty, delicate, and vulnerable—a stark contrast to his brutishness when he is around Dymphna (one of the young leaders of the crime family, played by Barry Keoghan). Calm With Horses is both immensely exciting and hilariously funny; however, what sticks out most is the bond between a father and a son. Arm is not the man his son deserves, and while he knows this all too well, he struggles to break the cycles of error that trickle down the generations. During the course of the film Arm discovers that being a father is not about merely giving—it is an arduous, sustained sacrifice. Arm's transformation after realising this truth makes for 90 minutes of laughs and thrills tied together by a brilliantly delicate and completely engrossing portrayal of the relationship between a father and a son.
Calm With Horses is a fabulous 90 minute movie, and it’s streaming on Netflix now.
