--- description: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s debut feature film 'The Mustang' shows how the untamed souls of an inmate and a wild horse can help each other. title: A Wild Horse and an Inmate Tame Each Other in 'The Mustang' image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee017a7d0f917868/698946a7db2987349c261fb8/the-mustang-timeoff-reviews.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # A Wild Horse and an Inmate Tame Each Other in _The Mustang_  by [Stephanie Zacharek](/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Film Critic Mar 14, 2019 9:53 AM CUT  Easy does it for Schoenaerts and friend Easy does it for Schoenaerts and friendFocus Features  by [Stephanie Zacharek](/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Film Critic Mar 14, 2019 9:53 AM CUT Stories of people who are redeemed by animals are a dime a dozen, and that’s fine by me: Give me dozens! Even so, _The Mustang_, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s debut feature, is one of the better ones. Matthias Schoenaerts plays Roman Coleman, an angry, withdrawn convict at Nevada’s Ely State Prison who’s assigned to work in a program training feral horses, readying them for auction. The program’s director–played by Bruce Dern, in fine ornery-old-coot mode–gives Roman a chance with a truly regal beast, a mustang with a silky-looking coat of golden brown dusted with powdery silver, who has no intention of being tamed. A fellow inmate and ace horse trainer, Henry (played by the always terrific Jason Mitchell), shows Roman the ropes and sees a glimpse of promise in his sullen eyes. Naturally, the horse–whom Roman names Marquis after seeing the name in a magazine article, though he pronounces it “Marcus”–takes longer to be convinced. You can probably guess every beat of _The Mustang_ ahead of time, but what does that matter? The picture, shot by Ruben Impens, is gorgeous to look at. The remote desert setting, with its molten-red sunsets and vistas of chalky mountains, looks like both the beginning and the end of the earth, starting and resting point at once. But the film really belongs to Schoenaerts, a wonderful actor who doesn’t get big Hollywood roles, perhaps because no one knows quite what to do with him. Roman says little and thinks, a lot, before speaking; Schoenaerts lets us see how much the words cost him. His most natural language is spoken through his glance: there, we see wariness giving way to cautious trust. The same can be said of his four-legged co-star, whose sideways gaze also has its own rich vocabulary. In one of the movie’s most stunning scenes, Roman and Marcus–after almost literally butting heads–reach a truce. Roman has given up on his stubborn charge and slumps to the ground in anger. Marcus nuzzles his way into the frame, handing over his trust with a few short puffs of breath, an equine blessing. It’s one of those moments that remind us we don’t deserve animals–and still, they stick by us, as if we were worthy of their love. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5551302/the-mustang-movie-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5551302/the-mustang-movie-review/"},"headline":"A Wild Horse and an Inmate Tame Each Other in The Mustang","datePublished":"2019-03-14T09:53:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T23:01:30.990Z","description":"Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s debut feature film 'The Mustang' shows how the untamed souls of an inmate and a wild horse can help each other.","url":"https://time.com/5551302/the-mustang-movie-review/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee017a7d0f917868/698946a7db2987349c261fb8/the-mustang-timeoff-reviews.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephanie Zacharek","jobTitle":"Film Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee017a7d0f917868/698946a7db2987349c261fb8/the-mustang-timeoff-reviews.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Mustang TimeOff Reviews","caption":"Easy does it for Schoenaerts and friend","creditText":"Focus Features","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5551302/the-mustang-movie-review/","name":"A Wild Horse and an Inmate Tame Each Other in The Mustang"}}]}] ```