>>REVIEW
DREAMER
STARRING Dakota Fanning, Kurt Russell and some horse named Sacrifice
DIRECTED BY
Opens Friday October 21
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Running straight along the racetrack from life-threatening injury to (quelle surprise) triumph, Dreamer tells the tale of a little girl (Dakota Fanning, so cute I wanted to hit things) and her father (Kurt Russell, so staid I wanted to throw things) brought together by the rehabilitation of their injured race horse Sonador (a horse credited as Sacrifice in the film’s best performance, so pretty I wanted to ride things).
If there’s anything worth watching in Dreamer, it’s the strained father-son routine between Russell and Kris Kristofferson, whose visual similarities hit like a bale of hay upside the head. Sure, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but on the level of appearances alone, these two are thicker than blood. Thank goodness there’s the kindly Middle Eastern Prince Sadir (Oded Fehr) around to bring the two together by bankrolling their unspoken dreams of racing in the Breeder’s Cup (with an injured horse, no less).
Dreamer is inspired by a true story, we’re told, and given that the actual horse upon whom the film is based did indeed run in the Breeder’s Cup, it’s nice to know that we can all strive together to overcome our disabilities and injuries and still be a winner. Still, in reality that horse (Mariah’s Storm) merely placed ninth, her real pedigree in having birthed two subsequent champions, an angle Dreamer only flirts with before setting its sights solely on first place. For a film aimed at kids, Dreamer’s focus on winning is mildly troubling — more than once we’re told that were she unable to race, Sonador would be put down without a second thought. "It’s a business," says daddy Kurt. "Grumble grumble, cough cough," says grandpa Kris.
There’s nothing quite so beautiful as a horse in full gallop captured on film. Throw a jockey on its back (in this case, scaredy-cat Freddy Rodriguez) and bridle up its face, however, and you’ve got a film about big-business pricks with little else to do but sit around betting on the horses. Built around teen-diva-in-training Fanning, Dreamer could’ve been a Black Beauty-style ode to the relationship between humans and horses. Instead, it’s really just another Hollywood product of how cool it is to win (and how embarrassing it is to lose). Granted, if I hadn’t seen it, I’d never know what a "teaser pony" was (it’s one of those tiny horses kept in the stable with a mare to get her ready for the arrival of her real stud – or in other words, a horse fluffer, if you will).
Fanning isn’t to blame for Dreamer’s paint-by-numbers plot turns and valleys, no sir. Me, I blame Seabiscuit. |
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