Thankfully, “On Swift Horses” is something much more complex and compelling than the love-triangle tale you expect from its first several minutes.

After all, what were we to think upon meeting Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Muriel, who, after a daytime lovemaking session with Will Poulter’s Lee, is continuing to drag her feet on giving him an answer to his repeated marriage proposals and who obviously is taken with Lee’s handsome brother, Jacob Elordi’s Julius, upon meeting him a few moments later?

You envision so much of what’s likely to come — the secret, passionate, lustful and altogether forbidden affair that ends with brother hating brother.

That’s not how “On Swift Horses” rides.

This Daniel Minahan-directed adaptation of Shannan Pufahl’s 2019 debut novel, set in the early 1950s, presents the viewer with parallel narratives for Muriel and Julius. Both characters yearn for a type of love difficult to obtain, at least at that time, and find something satisfying in gambling — and in risky behavior in general.

A film you sit with for a while after finishing it, “On Swift Horses” says as much with desire-filled glances and uncomfortable silences as it does with the words penned by screenwriter Bryce Kass.

After hitching a ride, Julius arrives at Muriel’s childhood home on Christmas Eve. As he chills in some snow outside, she sees him through an upstairs bathroom, where she’s having a smoke.

“You must be her,” he says looking up at Muriel.

“Must be,” she says.

“Toss one of those down to me.”

These minutes they share over cigarettes are the beginning of the relationship at the heart of the story, even if, again, it does not develop as you’d assume.

Inside the picturesque home, treated with soft lighting, Julius sees that she plays Solitaire and suggests poker may be a better game for her, seeming to sense she has the makeup for what it takes in a game that requires deception, information gathering and the willingness to take sizable risks.

While Lee is on a break from his military service in Korea and must soon return, Julius has been discharged, Lee is shocked to learn. Regardless, before long, they can follow Lee’s plan of all living together in California to begin a life together.

While Lee craves the stability he and Julius didn’t have in their childhoods, Julius seeks something different. And so while Muriel does commit to Lee and moves to San Diego with him, Julius ends up in Las Vegas.

Although he’s made a habit of cheating at cards, he takes a job at a casino to spot cheaters. There, he is swept off his feet by a man working the same job, the bedeviling and (almost literally) explosive Henry (Diego Calva of “Babylon”). Julius, for once, has everything he needs, but Henry isn’t satisfied and works to convince his lover that they should be stealing from other casinos.

Muriel, meanwhile, is keeping secrets from Lee. At first, it’s the money she wins when she’s able to sneak off to a racetrack and place bets based on tips she overhears from customers while working at a diner. Soon, however, it’s the time spent with a neighbor, Sandra (Sasha Calle, “The Flash”), with whom she shares an unmistakable spark upon meeting.

And yet she still wants something from Julius, dreaming of the day he may finally show up — and stay. They write to each other regularly, which makes Lee feel like an afterthought to each of them.

Edgar-Jones (“Where the Crawdads Sing,” “Twisters”) shines in “On Swift Horses,” especially in scenes where Muriel wades into dangerous waters. The character’s mix of excitement and apprehension is palpable. Plus, the simmering sadness her character carries is dialed in at just the right level to remind us all is not well without weighing down the film.

And we know Elordi (“Saltburn,” “Priscilla”) does cool and confident well, and while that’s on display at times here, he shows another set of skills as the increasingly desperate Julius fights for what he holds dear.

If Minahan (“Deadwood: The Movie,” “Fellow Travelers”) and Kass (“Lizzie”) make a misstep, it’s failing to flesh out the character of Lee a bit more. Poulter (“Midsommar,” “Dopesick”) is a gifted actor, and he isn’t really able to show his stuff until a key late scene.

In his director’s statement, Minahan says he sought to tell a story that does something unusual with story elements such as gambling and domestic melodrama, and he has succeeded in that endeavor. He also brings a measured but steady pace to “On Swift Horses” that is ideal for the story it’s telling.

Overall, he and his collaborators have crafted a film that leaves you wanting more — in a good way — leaving you with an ending that isn’t neat and tidy and thus feels appropriate for what’s come before it.

———

‘ON SWIFT HORSES’

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for sexual content, nudity and some language)

Running time: 1:59

How to watch: In theaters April 25

———

©2025 The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio). Visit The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio) at www.news-herald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.