Literary novels, driven by ideas and characterizations rather than propelled principally by plot, often don’t translate well to film. Out Stealing Horses is the rare exception. Watching the film is an experience like reading a great book — events unfold gradually and with poignant imagery and sharply drawn characters. There’s plenty of plot — injury, death, betrayal, desertion — but it’s in the service of the storyteller’s very human lessons.
In this case, the central storyteller is Trond (Swedish star Stellan Skarsgård), a Norwegian man in his late 60s who has retreated to rural Sweden on a pension after the death of his wife. He spends his time reliving the summer of 1948, when he was 15 and lived with his father in a woodsy cabin. Yes, it’s one of those “the summer that changed everything” movies, and the title refers to young Trond’s last moment of unfettered freedom, riding a neighbor’s horses bareback without permission.
Beyond that, it would be difficult (and rather pointless) to summarize the movie’s complex plot. Suffice it to say that there’s a family tragedy that changes the course of everyone’s lives, and it’s both heartbreaking and elegantly rendered.
Writer/director Hans Petter Moland (Cold Pursuit) has a great eye for Norwegian landscapes, making the natural world integral and lovely without resorting to postcardlike lingering. He also has a fine hand with actors of all ages, coaxing potent expressions of difficult emotions without melodrama. Skarsgård has rarely been better, and teenage newcomer Jon Ranes, as his younger counterpart, is quite the find — boyish but with a great capacity for melancholy.
The movie ends not with big plot twists, but with gradual revelations about human frailty and forgiveness worthy of an Ang Lee film. Some viewers may find the movie a bit pokey and inconclusive, but I found its incremental evolutions true and touching — well worth the investment.
Available to rent starting Aug. 7 via fineartstheatre.com and grailmoviehouse.com
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