Realizing that one has arrived at a crossroads in their life where what existed and what they knew before is coming to close is a frightening prospect that we all just face one day. We take for granted certain capabilities that we have and the inevitability that one day, we’ll no longer be able to do them. For most of us, we don’t reach this point until later in life, but athletes face the mortality of their physical prowess at an earlier phase, leaving them with the prospect of spending decades without the abilities that have come to define them. A new indie film takes us deep into the mindframe of what this realization is like for an athlete facing such uncertainty.
Jockey tells the story of an aging horse jockey named Jackson (Clifton Collins Jr.) who is nearing the end of a success career on the saddle. As Jackson contemplates his legacy and deals with his aging body and waining skills, a rookie rider named Gabriel (Moises Arias) arrives, claiming to be his son. Jackson must now deal with two crises of identity as he moves into a new phase of his life.
This film is an in-depth character study that delves into how people deal with changing times and our ever-looming, impending mortality. The conundrum that Jackson faces in Jockey is one that most people will have to deal with eventually and one that has befuddled successful people especially; when your life has revolved around one thing, what do you do when you lose a piece of yourself that is that large? For Jackson, finding that meaning in the life ahead of him involves his mentorship of Gabriel. In training a new generation of rider, not only is it an opportunity to continue to affect racing after losing the ability to ride, it offers a chance at a renewed sense of purpose. This pathway is integral to allowing Jockey to work as a film and create investment in Jackson’s story, avoiding becoming a tedious character study and instead hitting the sweet spot of a methodical examination of how humans deal with life transitions. Collins Jr. and Arias’ chemistry as two people passing each other on different life trajectories helps not only to further Jackson’s arc as the protagonist, but allows for Gabriel to come across as an interesting character on his own independent of the role he plays in Jackson’s story.
Being a character study without a heavy duty plot, this is a film driven by performances, namely Clifton Collins Jr.’s in the lead role. His Jackson is not a man prone to an obvious, over-the-top existential crisis, but is instead subdued in his varying emotions as he deals with his professional mortality. Collins Jr. hits on both emotional subtlety and outward displays of feeling when called for making for a balanced performance that hits all the appropriate notes. His chemistry with Arias and Molly Parker who plays his longtime friend and horse trainer/sponsor of sorts Ruth and is palpable and provides additional story threads that provide needed breaks from Jackson’s journey. Ruth plays an important part in showing Jackson the potential to move onto a new phase in life that doesn’t mark the end of everything but the beginning of something else and the tug on Jackson that this represents in his struggle.
Jockey is a meditation on an intense subject that manages to quietly examine a character’s psyche without feeling too tedious. The film features a subdued but strong performance that allows Clifton Collins Jr. to display his talents in full. His performance is complemented by costars Moises Arias and Molly Parker who complement the journey of Collins’ character while still having their own place.
Image: Sony Pictures Classics
