Dreamer

I know that there is an audience out there for this movie, because despite being absurdly predictable in almost all facets imaginable, it’s one of those “feel good” films that will have certain members of the audience squealing with glee by the end. Such was the case for the woman sitting in front of me, at least.

The story begins with young Cale Crane (Daktoa Fanning) staring sadly out of her bedroom window, bemoaning the fact that her family’s horse farm doesn’t have any actual horses on it. She desperately wants to learn about the horseracing business, but her father, Ben Crane (Kurt Russell), insists that he wants a better life for her. Instantly I suspected that I would, at some point in the movie, inevitably hear some character tell Ben that horseracing was “in Cale’s blood,” and that he shouldn’t discourage her. Ben grudgingly takes Cale to work with him one day, and as she watches the horses warming up before the race, she takes an instant liking to Soñador, whom her father says has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, Ben’s boss is an evil, uncaring villain who is only interested in money as opposed to the advice of his expert employee, and forces Ben to have Soñador race despite Ben’s instance that the horse told him she didn’t feel like racing today. Well come on now, that’s just lazy. Anyway, as one might expect, the horse breaks its leg during the race but is saved from euthanization at Ben’s insistence. His evil bad horrible mean boss, Palmer (David Morse), fires Ben for his insolence and for claiming that he can talk to horses. Plus, Palmer is just evil, and he has a villainous reputation to uphold. Ben decides to nurse Soñador back to heath with the help of two of his ranch hands in order to breed her and make money on the foal. The plans change, however, when Cale attempts to run away with the horse after a fight with her father, and Ben sees that Soñador is still remarkably fast, having healed completely from her injury.

The “Eye of the Tiger” song swells up dramatically, as Ben and his ranch hands start Soñador on a rigorous training program to get her back in shape—running laps around a track with her and having her do pull-ups in the barn. Since one of the ranch hands had quit his former job as a jockey after a near-fatal fall from his horse during a race, what would one think the odds would be that he will overcome his fear and make his unbelievable comeback riding Soñador in the upcoming Breeder’s Cup? As the race approaches, the nefarious ex-boss Palmer shows up at the family’s house to exchange antagonistic dialogue and literally wave giant wads of cash at Cale in an offer to buy Soñador back from her. OH MY GOD, WILL SHE TAKE THE MONEY?!?! It was too nerve-wracking, I could hardly take it!

Somewhere along the line, Kris Kirstofferson makes the “horse business is in her blood” remark, and at long-last I felt completely justified in my dislike for this movie. Were I a small child or someone who simply enjoys happy movies with joyous endings, then I would have a much nicer opinion of this film; however, it was just a bit too cliché for me to walk away actually feeling inspired. I like an underdog movie as much as the next moviegoer, and Dreamer was certainly that, so if you don’t mind knowing exactly what’s going to happen in practically every scene, then you will have no problems with Dreamer.