Robert Duvall wrote, directed and starred in "Wild Horses", a modern day Western that has little bearing between the title and actual story taking place. It's sort of a family drama interspersed with a criminal investigation focused on Duvall's character, ranch owner Scott Briggs. Until I read some of the other reviews here, I didn't know the actress Luciana Pedraza was Duvall's real life wife. She's the Texas Ranger attempting to link Briggs with the disappearance and presumed murder of a Mexican teenager who had a relationship with Briggs's son Ben (James Franco) some fifteen years earlier. With the cold case reopened, Briggs is caught up short and scrambles to keep himself in the clear about what happened so many years ago.I'm not as upset about the film as a lot of commenters on this board seem to be. Duvall may be settling into a comfortable pattern of characters in his latest movie roles, but that's no reason to fault his ability. He delivers his lines with nuance and determination, and I for one don't mind the pacing of his pictures like "A Night in Old Mexico" and the one under consideration here.What kept me off balance however was Franco's portrayal of son Ben. Alternately conflicted and reconciled with his father over his own sexual identity, his motivation in telling the elder Briggs he never wanted to see him again after the truth came out about the Davis death didn't ring true for me. After all, Briggs didn't actually kill Davis, it was a horrible accident for which he was present and might have borne second or third degree culpability. If anything, his 'crime' was remaining silent for the last decade and a half, but coming clean seemed like what should have been a redemptive moment. I guess what I'm saying is that that whole scenario needed a better working over to come across more effectively.As it is, when Scott Briggs pulled over on the side of the road, I felt he had already telegraphed the outcome of the movie. The off screen gun shot brought his personal ordeal and anguish to an end, and if you think about it, not many actors would write themselves into a screenplay in which they come out as a failed human being. Give Duvall credit at least for taking that kind of risk near the end of a long and productive career.

At first I thought this was going to be the sort of film requiring extra attention on account of being out of the ordinary. It's certainly the latter but I wondered whether the director was deliberately attracting attention by having the whole cast act a bit odd. For 'odd' read 'badly', so many of them were stilted and unconvincing it's as if the budget dictated fifth-stringers only.Then there's the editing. Scenes jump from one to another and within themselves are so unconvincing it detracts from what was a promising script. In small doses you might almost think this was an attempt to portray real life but it's not that at all. It's just bad.I watched it all the way through to see if it improved. It didn't.

Aging Actor and Sometimes Director Robert Duvall Plays an Aging Texan Rancher that is Confronted with Border Crossers and a Gay Son. He is at Odds with His Past and These New Fangled Things Confuse Him, to Say the Least.He Directs Himself and Some Good Actors Along with Some Not So Good Actors in a Meandering Script with Jarring Scene Transitions and it's Not a Very Smooth Ride. The Film Does Have Some Moments and a Few Good Scenes and its Heart Seems to Be in the Right Place.Ultimately it is the Rough and Jagged Way the Film is Pieced Together and it's Almost Surreal the Way Things Don't Mesh, Come Out of Nowhere, and Go Nowhere. The Scene with the Grieving Mother at the End When Duvall Comes Clean is the Most Cringe-Worthy and is Just Embarrassingly Mishandled and Badly Written.The Movie isn't Awful but it is a Long Way from Good and Considering the Talent Involved a Grave Disappointment. It's Messages are Messy and Film Craftsmanship is Absent or Weak at the Very Least.

Very disappointing considering the cast involved. Much has been made of the gay theme but this rarely rises to the level of an after school special. Robert Duvall takes credit for the screenplay but I don't know which is worse his writing his direction or his acting which seems phoned in. One character - the woman Texas Ranger wanders in from another movie & I never quite figured out what she was doing there. She didn't seem to know either. There are a lot of Hispanic background actors who take up space as well. Sadly they have very bad accents even when speaking Spanish. I kept waiting for something good to happen some music, some photography maybe some full frontal male nudity with James Franco or Josh Hartnett.