Fresh Horses is a unique and disturbing character study...
The best part about this film went largely unnoticed
Basically, it's a film about two people who set out to use one another yet try to convince themselves that they’re in love. This made it a departure from other 80s teen flicks that centered upon the “sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll” zeitgeist that defined the decade. “Fresh Horses” represents a turn from the quest to score to lives rooted in morning-after regrets. This puts it in a similar category as “Less Than Zero” – also starring Andrew McCarthy – and other somber 80s teen gems.
From the very beginning, we see that Matt Larkin is a smug, commitment-phobic jerk. The film starts with Matt and Tip (Ben Stiller) riding Matt’s boat up and down the Ohio River. After this 10-minute montage, we discover that Matt deliberately showed late to his own engagement party. Throughout the movie, he continues to show his passive-aggressive propensity for abandoning women at the precise point in which they seem to need/want him the most. Most notably:
He strikes up a relationship with Jewel so he can break off his engagement with his fiancée.
He fails to go with Jewel to confront Green about signing the divorce papers, even though her facial expressions and tone make it obvious that this is what she wants him to do. He lets her go alone, instead.
Even though Ellen (Molly Hagan) makes it clear that she’s up for a one-night stand, Matt basically ignores her offer and insists they go to the abandoned railroad house. (Likely because he knows Jewel will see him there.)
Here is another of Matt Larkin’s other, obvious flaws:
He becomes physically abusive with his friends whenever they suggest that he just break it off with Jewel. He doesn’t do this because he loves her, he does this because his friends’ suggestion that he’s just using the girl cuts a little too close to the truth for him.
Matt repeatedly shows contempt for Jewel throughout the film.
When they meet and he asks for a drink of her soda. (Narcissistic boundary issues.)
When Matt and Tip are talking to a lawyer about Jewel’s marriage to Green, Matt does all the talking while Jewel is left to wait outside the room. (Jewel doesn’t matter even when it comes to her own life.)
Throughout the film, Matt talks down to Jewel in an annoying, condescending manner. (Correcting her English, chiding her about her name, etc.)
Matt tries to keep Jewel from meeting his parents. (He’s embarrassed to be with her.)
Jewel isn’t much better. Her greatest flaw is that she’s a near-pathological liar who’s also not honest with herself. She claims to resent Matt for treating her as though she’s stupid and helpless, yet she purposefully presents herself as dumb and helpless in order to convince people to help her. Then, she resents Matt for behaving in a way she more or less manipulated him into behaving. (My guess is that she does this as a justification for using people the way that she does.)
Some additional examples of Jewel’s duplicity include:
She sees in Matt the chance of escaping from her low-class, white trash rural existence.
She casually concocts stories of being abused by older men – typically older men/father figures – in order to elicit sympathy from other men.
She married Green for the same reason she hooked up with Matt – to hopefully improve her position in life.
She hints at what she wants from Matt but never comes out and says it. (Sorry! Pet peeve of mine.)
The lies she tells are dangerous in that they could cause men to fight and kill each other to protect her “honor.” (I think she secretly yearns for this as a means of proving her “worth.”)
This film has haunted me for nearly 30 years
I didn't know why, but I knew I just had to see it again. I'm glad that I did, as it's given me some that I find useful:
https://thetraumacentral.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/a-fresh-look-at-fresh-horses-1988/