Wild Horses

I spent the last twenty minutes of Wild Horses scouring the edges of the frame for the kitchen sink, because that's about the only thing missing from this Argentinean road picture. It begins promisingly enough, with a bizarre sort-of-holdup in which an elderly man (Hector Alterio) threatens to commit suicide unless a young bank executive named Pedro (Leonardo Sbaraglia) returns to him the $15,000 he believes the bank stole from him years earlier. Scrambling for something to give the man, Pedro accidentally stumbles across $50,000 (which his boss--it turns out--is laundering for some non-specific thugs) and engineers an impromptu escape by posing as a hostage. Thus begins a rambling comedy-drama in which the two men bond on the lam, try to stay one step ahead of the criminals whose money they stole, pick up a young drifter (Cecilia Dopazo), and become folk heroes while pursued by an opportunistic reporter (Fernan Miras). Is it a satire of the media romanticizing criminals? A love story? A crime caper? A feel-good exploration of golden years renewal and joie de vivre? Beats me, though it's sporadically fun along the way trying to figure out whether the finale will feature car chases and explosions or a tearful farewell. For my money, though, the best laughs come from waiting to see the next butchered spelling or grammatical error in the subtitles; is it not worth the investment to hire a decent proofreader these days? Not recommended. (S. Renshaw)