MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Filmmaker Martin McDonagh specializes in a style of comedy that is dark and violent and liberally laced with profanity. He has given us mobsters hiding out in the film "In Bruges," friends falling out in "The Banshees of Inisherin" and now, says our critic Bob Mondello, assassins hanging out...
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SAM ROCKWELL: (As Lee) Can we just keep a little bit of a low profile while we're here?
KELLY: ...In "Wild Horse Nine."
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: 1973. An airport near Santiago, Chile, after the democratic election of Salvador Allende. Sitting across from two college coeds are Lee, a cool, quiet Sam Rockwell, and Chris, a puckish ticking time bomb...
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JOHN MALKOVICH: (As Chris) Girls, can I ask you something?
MONDELLO: ...Played by John Malkovich.
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MALKOVICH: (As Chris) How do you like your new president?
ROCKWELL: (As Lee) Oh.
MALKOVICH: (As Chris) Your new left-wing...
ROCKWELL: (As Lee) What...
MALKOVICH: (As Chris) ...President?
ROCKWELL: (As Lee) What did I say about before, Chris? What did I say?
MARIANA DI GIROLAMO: (As Monica) Yes, we like him. Everybody likes him.
AILIN SALAS: (As Alicia) Mm-hmm.
MALKOVICH: (As Chris) Not everybody. That wouldn't be true. Well, enjoy him while you can, ladies.
MONDELLO: Threat heard and received.
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SALAS: (As Alicia) And who the [expletive] are you? The CIA?
ROCKWELL: (As Lee, laughter).
MALKOVICH: (As Chris) We are the CIA, actually. We're totally the CIA.
ROCKWELL: (As Lee) We're not the CIA. Obviously, we're not the CIA.
MALKOVICH: (As Chris) Yes, we are, I swear. He's just being shy. We came down here to destabilize your democracy, and it is going great.
ROCKWELL: (As Lee, laughter).
MALKOVICH: (As Chris) So we decided to take a little side trip to Easter Island and see the big heads.
ROCKWELL: (As Lee) How about we board the [expletive] airplane, Chris?
MONDELLO: It's on the plane that you start to sense the banter is masking something. Malkovich's Chris has been dirtying his hands in shady U.S. operations since the 1950s - Bay of Pigs, Congo - and now he's contemplating a memoir, much to the annoyance of their boss, played by Steve Buscemi.
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STEVE BUSCEMI: (As MJ) Where's big mouth? We hear he's been acting problematic again.
MONDELLO: But Rockwell's Lee is the one in charge here, looking concerned when his pal loses his train of thought and shepherding him, even as he's getting mocked.
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MALKOVICH: (As Chris) You never stop eating.
ROCKWELL: (As Lee) Hey, I stop eating.
MALKOVICH: (As Chris) Yeah, if you're sleeping or if you're shooting a guy.
ROCKWELL: (As Lee) Chris, we're on an airplane, all right? Shut the [expletive] up.
MALKOVICH: (As Chris) Don't pull rank on me. I've killed people in countries you can't even spell.
ROCKWELL: (As Lee) Name one country you killed someone in that I can't spell.
MALKOVICH: (As Chris) Czechoslovakia.
ROCKWELL: (As Lee, laughter) You never killed anyone in Czechoslo-[expletive]-vakia. You just know I can't spell it.
MONDELLO: Arrival on Easter Island, with its majestic prehistoric statues, does not stop the snark.
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MALKOVICH: (As Chris) I like him, but once you've seen one big head, you've seen them all.
MONDELLO: Though it does clarify a few things. Chris is seriously ill and forgetful enough to keep notes in his pocket saying things like, remember that you're dying and don't trust Lee. He's also self-medicating with morphine and communing with the island's wild horses while Lee spars long-distance with his not terribly devoted wife.
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PARKER POSEY: (As Marge) I stopped listening in the middle of that. Was it funny?
ROCKWELL: (As Lee) How are the kids?
POSEY: (As Marge) Oh, who cares?
MONDELLO: McDonagh keeps the back-and-forth amusing, whether untethered to the real world or illuminating horrors like American-directed foreign coups.
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ROCKWELL: (As Lee) Is that why you shot up a car last night?
MALKOVICH: (As Chris) Did someone say I shot up a car last night?
ROCKWELL: (As Lee) You said you just drove around.
MALKOVICH: (As Chris) I drove around and I shot up a car. What are we, hippies?
MONDELLO: The banter can also be haunting when things turn grim, as they inevitably do in a McDonagh storyline. As much of a monster as Malkovich is playing, the film makes Chris' illness plenty poignant, with Rockwell's Lee toggling between being protective and combative...
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ROCKWELL: (As Lee) What's that, a threat?
BUSCEMI: (As MJ) You can take it any way you want.
ROCKWELL: (As Lee) Well, how about you take it and you shove it up...
MONDELLO: ...As Malkovich plays a man whose wits are failing, though his wit is not.
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MALKOVICH: (As Chris) Who was that? Your mom?
MONDELLO: Malkovich, ever understated, brings a bit of his "Ripley's Game" game to the character. He's a creep for the ages - eerie, airy, amoral and seductive - and he more or less gallops away with "Wild Horse Nine." I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF L.A.B. SONG, "TAKE IT AWAY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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