I have a confession. I am sick to death of movies about this underdog sports team coming from behind to win or that injured animal rising above the limits of their physical strength to overcome the odds. The theme has just been done to death. So it was with a little bit of a sigh that I decided to watch “Dreamer.” I had one of those distinct “déjà vu but not in a good way” feelings. But you know what, I was pleasantly surprised.
Ben Crane (Kurt Russell) is a horse trainer. His father (Kris Kristofferson) was a trainer before him, and you could say horses run in the family, as Cale (Dakota Fanning) Ben’s young daughter, loves horses too. Although a barn stands on their property, Ben has sworn there will never again be a horse on their land, to Cale’s great disappointment.
Things aren’t right in the Crane household. A disappointment from the past has caused a rift between Ben and his father, and Ben’s marriage to Lily (Elisabeth Shue) isn’t going so well either. He hardly spends any time with Cale, and it looks like the family is just barely hanging on.
One morning Ben takes Cale to work with him. While preparing a horse named Sonja for that day’s race, Ben gets a strong feeling that the horse isn’t fit to run. The owner takes offense and won’t listen to Ben, demanding that the horse run anyway. Against Ben’s better judgement, he obeys, only to have the horse fall midway through the race and break her leg.
Ben doesn’t want to put the horse down in front of Cale, so he takes it back to the stall. The owner, a pompous windbag named Palmer, comes in and starts kicking up a fuss, and Ben lets him have it. Ben loses his job, ends up taking the horse as partial payment for back wages, and leaves the stall, taking with him a trainer, a jockey, and a near-dead horse.
As the movie progresses, we gain a lot of appreciation for Ben’s integrity. He may not be the cuddliest man in his personal relationships, but he treats his horse and his employees with respect and dignity. Through caring for the horse, he is able to improve his relationship with his wife, his daughter, and eventually his father.
While Ben is the central adult characater in the movie, the star is, by far, Cale. Midway through the movie, the plot takes an unexpected twist as Cale is made the owner of the horse. She takes the challenge with gusto, entering Sonja in the biggest race of the year, sweet-talking the judges into letting the horse run, and then acquiring a sponsor. Dakota Fanning handles the role with maturity far beyond her years.
So, while I went into the movie as a total cynic, I came out a believer in “Dreamer.” There is some occasional swearing (you can blame Kris Kristofferson for that) but nothing I found terribly offensive.
While this movie probably won’t appeal to a very young child, I think children, especially little girls, around the age of seven and up will really enjoy it, as will their parents.
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Flicka: A Horse Movie with a Heart