Dreamer
Reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
Rating: 2.5 out of 4
I'm damn sick of horse movies. Between Seabiscuit and Racing Stripes, I've seen my fair share of feel-good superfluity over these last couple years. And Dreamer, at first glance, seems like more of the same. But the further we plunge into this heap of inspirational hodge-podge, the more we find ourselves invested in the characters. What at first seems like another retread of old material evolves into something enticing, if only slightly different. Yes, Dreamer is the same old, same old; but the film's written well enough to make it enjoyable enough for a family outing.
Dreamer's plot plays out pretty much as we'd expect it to; focusing on an unlikely horse making its way to racing stardom. The way the film arrives at the horse's fame, however, is a slight and very welcome variation on the old formula. Instead of launching straight into the cushy underdog story, Dreamer bothers itself with the commerce side of horse racing. Initially, after the horse Sonador breaks its leg in a race, Ben Crane (Kurt Russell) and his daughter Cale (Dakota Fanning) plan to heal the bone, breed Sonador with a prize-winning stud, and sell the offspring for as much as $300,000. I liked this approach. It explored a side to horse racing often kept out of Hollywood. The concept was new for me, being a city-born kid whose only horse experience has been as a wide-eyed tourist.
But, alas, Sonador is found infertile and the family has to resort to horse racing again, and Dreamer falls back to its genre expectations. That's fine; I walked into the theatre expecting this. Thankfully, however, Dreamer doesn't take the straightest of paths to get to its ending. The film does manage to rotate the tables some, even if it is only a slight adjustment. Instead of Ben taking full control of Sonador's racing, he hands the reigns over to Cale, whose knowledge of horses comes from the old stories of her estranged grandfather, Pops (Kris Kristofferson), who lives across the field in the guest house. So we're treated to some funny, wholesome moments of family growth and childhood emerging into adolescence. It's no coming-of-age story, but, again, it's interesting enough to keep us interested.
There have been enough words said already about the young, prodigious Dakota Fanning. We get it. She's amazing. Let's just sit back and look forward to all her upcoming work. Kurt Russell, on the other hand, hasn't had as consistent a track record as Fanning; but here, he's convincing enough as Cale's father Ben. The director reportedly had a boy in the place of Cale in the original screenplay; but after seeing Fanning in Man on Fire, decided the film was meant for her instead. The writers may have shifted the dialogue's focus to a more feminine motivation for Cale, but they seem to have left Ben's character intact. Surprisingly, this slacking effort works wonders for Dreamer. There's a stern gruffness to Ben that we've commonly seen in father-son stories. But put to a father-daughter story, the effect is somehow better. The contradiction of characters is sentimental, but without the teary-eyed pudge that bogs down this sort of film. The Cranes' three-generation family actually reminded me a little of the family from last month's An Unfinished Life; with the cold western flair of silence that seemed to permeate about the film's tone, ratcheting up the story's intensity just enough to keep us from yawning.
Admittedly, Dreamer is the kind of film that could never really be all that intense. It is a horse film after all. But it manages to avoid gimmicks and mute its contrivances enough to let us examine its characters for what their worth. And with Dakota Fanning at the helm, along with good supporting work from Russell and Kristofferson, Dreamer makes it out unscathed.
www.samseescinema.com
Reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
Rating: 2.5 out of 4
I'm damn sick of horse movies. Between Seabiscuit and Racing Stripes, I've seen my fair share of feel-good superfluity over these last couple years. And Dreamer, at first glance, seems like more of the same. But the further we plunge into this heap of inspirational hodge-podge, the more we find ourselves invested in the characters. What at first seems like another retread of old material evolves into something enticing, if only slightly different. Yes, Dreamer is the same old, same old; but the film's written well enough to make it enjoyable enough for a family outing.
Dreamer's plot plays out pretty much as we'd expect it to; focusing on an unlikely horse making its way to racing stardom. The way the film arrives at the horse's fame, however, is a slight and very welcome variation on the old formula. Instead of launching straight into the cushy underdog story, Dreamer bothers itself with the commerce side of horse racing. Initially, after the horse Sonador breaks its leg in a race, Ben Crane (Kurt Russell) and his daughter Cale (Dakota Fanning) plan to heal the bone, breed Sonador with a prize-winning stud, and sell the offspring for as much as $300,000. I liked this approach. It explored a side to horse racing often kept out of Hollywood. The concept was new for me, being a city-born kid whose only horse experience has been as a wide-eyed tourist.
But, alas, Sonador is found infertile and the family has to resort to horse racing again, and Dreamer falls back to its genre expectations. That's fine; I walked into the theatre expecting this. Thankfully, however, Dreamer doesn't take the straightest of paths to get to its ending. The film does manage to rotate the tables some, even if it is only a slight adjustment. Instead of Ben taking full control of Sonador's racing, he hands the reigns over to Cale, whose knowledge of horses comes from the old stories of her estranged grandfather, Pops (Kris Kristofferson), who lives across the field in the guest house. So we're treated to some funny, wholesome moments of family growth and childhood emerging into adolescence. It's no coming-of-age story, but, again, it's interesting enough to keep us interested.
There have been enough words said already about the young, prodigious Dakota Fanning. We get it. She's amazing. Let's just sit back and look forward to all her upcoming work. Kurt Russell, on the other hand, hasn't had as consistent a track record as Fanning; but here, he's convincing enough as Cale's father Ben. The director reportedly had a boy in the place of Cale in the original screenplay; but after seeing Fanning in Man on Fire, decided the film was meant for her instead. The writers may have shifted the dialogue's focus to a more feminine motivation for Cale, but they seem to have left Ben's character intact. Surprisingly, this slacking effort works wonders for Dreamer. There's a stern gruffness to Ben that we've commonly seen in father-son stories. But put to a father-daughter story, the effect is somehow better. The contradiction of characters is sentimental, but without the teary-eyed pudge that bogs down this sort of film. The Cranes' three-generation family actually reminded me a little of the family from last month's An Unfinished Life; with the cold western flair of silence that seemed to permeate about the film's tone, ratcheting up the story's intensity just enough to keep us from yawning.
Admittedly, Dreamer is the kind of film that could never really be all that intense. It is a horse film after all. But it manages to avoid gimmicks and mute its contrivances enough to let us examine its characters for what their worth. And with Dakota Fanning at the helm, along with good supporting work from Russell and Kristofferson, Dreamer makes it out unscathed.
www.samseescinema.com