Saddle up to see French ‘Cowboys’
A weird, hothouse hybrid, the French-Belgian effort “Les Cowboys,” directed and co-written by “Rust and Bone” scribe Thomas Bidegain, channels John Ford’s 1956 masterpiece “The Searchers” in its tale of the hunt for a French girl named Isabelle (Laure Calamy), who runs away with her Muslim boyfriend, lives in hiding with him and converts to Islam.
The title is also a reference to the French family business — horses — and the family’s habit of attending cowboy-related events, where like-minded Western-infatuated people in 10-gallon hats drink, sing country songs and line dance in Wild West-infused French bars.
The John Wayne-Ethan Edwards figure in this scenario is tough, tough-loving father Alain Balland (Francois Damiens, who provides the French voice of Duke in “The Secret Life of Pets”), paternal head of the horse-business family and estranged husband of Nicole (Agathe Dronne). After crooning “The Tennessee Waltz” for adoring fans, Alain goes on a quest to find Isabelle.
The Jeffrey Hunter-Martin Pawley character is Alain’s unhappy but obedient son Georges, aka Kid (Finnegan Oldfield). After an encounter with Isabelle’s ex Ahmed (Mounir Margoum), Kid connects with Ahmed’s romantic partner Shazhana (Ellora Torchia), who displays impressive equestrian skills and similarly impressive partnership skills, back in France.
Some of the film’s adventures involving tracking down Ahmed don’t quite pass the plausibility test, including the presence of John C. Reilly in scenes set in Syria, and the music of Sons of the Pioneers is sorely missed. But enough of “Les Cowboys” works, including Jacques Audiard-collaborator Bidegain’s skillful direction and a big surprise halfway in, to make it a fun offbeat watch for Western-starved film buffs.
(“Les Cowboys” contains a scene of drug use and a violent image.)