I am not familiar with the work of filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra. But when I saw that BROKEN HORSES was opening at the nearby Laemmle Theater and Vincent D'Onofrio and Thomas Jane were in it, I looked at the trailers. There were two, one featuring filmmaker James Cameron and the other filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, both of whom raved about this film. The film also stars Anton Yelchin and Chris Marquette. I was sold.

The opening sequence is a beautiful piece of filmmaking, perhaps the best part of the picture. It starts with Thomas Jane at his most natural and despite the minimalism of the first scene, there is a lot of back story here and you learn a lot about his relationship with his "slow" son. Jane is so good here I wish there was more of him in the film. The sequence plays out introducing most of our principal characters and relationships. It is disturbing and seemingly sets up for a powerful film about two brothers.

Then the story jumps ahead 15 years. And looking back on it, here is the picture's major flaw. Had we seen more of the childhood of the brothers and what ultimately broke them up - Yelchin mentions they have not seen each other for eight years - the story would have been much more powerful. Ultimately the story is relatively thin, so filling in this part of their lives would have added a lot. 

But instead the story skips those 15 years and now the brothers are adults. Anton Yelchin's Jakey lives in the big city and is a soon to be married. Chris Marquette's Buddy never left home and convinces Jakey to come back to see his wedding present, something that he can't send to the city. When Jakey returns, he quickly learns that his brother is a criminal under the spell of crime boss Julius Hench. The less said about the plot from here on out, the better.

Anton Yelchin is a brilliant young actor, but his role is underwritten and he under plays so much of it that he barely registers. Had I not seen much of his previous work, I would not find him compelling in this role at all. 

Chris Marquette is playing a "slow" adult here and early on I found him somewhat annoying. But that might be by design. He soon settled into the portrayal and gives a charismatic performance of a man who may be slow by many standards but is anything but predictable. It is very strong work.

Vincent D'Onofrio is one of those performers who is wildly different from picture to picture, but he's never boring and you usually can't take your eyes off of him. Julius Hench is a role he can really sink his teeth into and I can't recall the last time he had such a great character to play. He is magnetic in this picture and I loved every minute of his performance. Now I'm even more excited to see him play Wilson Fisk A.K.A. The Kingpin in Marvel's DAREDEVIL series on Netflix.

BROKEN HORSES is beautifully made, but very minimalist and at times feels underwritten. Unfortunately the plot is very thin. Spending more time with the brothers as children or teenagers may have solved this problem. So for me, while it doesn't live up to the hype of Cameron and Cuaron, it's still a compelling picture that was definitely worth seeing. If you like modern day noir, seek it out.