Calm with Horses (2019)
Director: Nick Rowland
Screenwriter: Joe Murtagh
Starring: Cosmo Jarvis, Barry Keoghan, Niamh Algar, David Wilmot, Ned Dennehy, Anthony Welsh, Liam Carney, Kiljan Moroney
Evoking the raw energy of early British and Irish crime cinema while maintaining a voice all its own, Calm with Horses lands with the force of a knockout. It draws comparisons to the likes of Ben Wheatley’s Down Terrace, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher and John Michael McDonagh’s The Guard in tone and moral ambiguity, yet it never feels derivative. After festival screenings, this compact and powerful Irish crime drama has reached wider audiences thanks to streaming availability across the UK and Ireland.
Cosmo Jarvis anchors the film as Douglas “Arm” Armstrong, a retired boxer now working as an enforcer for the Dever clan, a rural family of gangsters. Arm’s life is torn between the brutal demands of his employers and his responsibility to his ex-partner Ursula (Niamh Algar) and their autistic son Jack (Kiljan Moroney). The film places that conflict at its center: Arm’s attempts to protect and provide for his family increasingly clash with the violent tasks expected of him, forcing choices that test his ethics and reshape his future.
The opening assault sequence is strikingly uncompromising: Arm visits an acquaintance and delivers a savage beating, a scene edited with shuddering jump cuts that underline the suddenness and clinical efficiency of violence. That man, Fannigan (Liam Carney), is punished for a deplorable act and becomes a pivot around which Arm’s loyalty to the Devers turns. From the outset it is clear the film will examine not just physical brutality but the corrosive social forces that normalize it.
Jarvis gives a nuanced, conflicted performance. Arm is a blunt instrument with a tender center — tenderest around his son. Scenes of the two together are among the film’s most humane moments, portraying parenting under strain with sensitivity and realism. Jack’s sensory challenges are handled without cliché, and the film conveys how ordinary moments can be fraught when a child processes the world differently.
Niamh Algar’s Ursula is the film’s emotional barometer. She sees through Arm’s tough exterior and remembers the man he once was, the person she fell in love with and with whom she had a child. Her quiet line, “You remind me of yourself sometimes. I miss you,” carries the weight of lost potential and longing. Ursula’s presence highlights Arm’s tragedy: a man whose promise as an athlete and as a partner was derailed by events that left him vulnerable to exploitation.
The supporting cast is strong and sharply drawn. David Wilmot makes Hector Dever a cool, calculating presence, the organized mind behind the family’s operations, while Ned Dennehy’s portrayal of Hector’s brother Paudi introduces unpredictable menace. Barry Keoghan is particularly effective as Dymphna, a swaggering would-be hard man whose entitlement and petty cruelty reveal him to be one of the story’s most repellent figures. His relationship with Arm is complex — equal parts camaraderie and manipulation — and Keoghan captures the character’s dangerous volatility.
Visually the film is striking. Piers McGrail’s cinematography frames the Irish countryside as both beautiful and ominous, wide green expanses providing a deceptively pastoral backdrop to the film’s criminal undercurrents. The contrast between peaceful landscapes and sudden violence enhances the film’s tension, making the world feel lived-in yet perilous.
Benjamin John Power’s electronic score is atmospheric and immersive, lifting scenes with a brooding, modern sound that complements the film’s emotional and moral unease. Editing and sound design work together to escalate suspense and make quieter character moments resonate, ensuring the film’s modest runtime feels lean and purposeful rather than rushed.
As a feature debut for director Nick Rowland, Calm with Horses demonstrates a confident command of tone, performance and visual storytelling. The film’s moral complexity — loyalty versus responsibility, violence versus care, past potential versus present choices — lingers after the credits. It asks uncomfortable questions about how and why otherwise decent people become entangled in criminal life, and whether redemption is possible once certain lines have been crossed.
Calm with Horses hits hard, both emotionally and physically, and the acting, direction and technical craft combine to make a memorable, affecting crime drama. Above all, it’s the empathetic portrayal of a fractured family and a man trying, often self-destructively, to do right by his son that stays with you. In the end, the film invites viewers to consider what they might do in Arm’s place and whether the instinct to protect family can excuse the choices that harm others.
21/24