Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story (10 September 2005)
directed by John Gatins
starring Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Kris Kristofferson, Elisabeth Shue, David Morse, Freddy Rodríguez, Luis Guzmán, Oded Fehr, Ken Howard, Holmes Osborne, Antonio Albadran, Frank Hoyt Taylor
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MPAA rating: Studio: DreamWorks SKG, Epsilon Motion Pictures, Hyde Park Entertainment, Tollin/Robbins Productions Script: John Gatins Music: John Debney Running time: 106 minutes Tags: Biography; Drama; Family Film; father-daughter relationships; father-son relationships; horses; Kentucky Tactical strength: [5/10]
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for brief mild language
Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story provides a nice vehicle for Dakota Fanning, where she demonstrates that she can do something other than scream at the top of her lungs, but it doesn't do much for the careers of the other actors or even the horses. Fanning plays Cale Crane, daughter of renowned race-horse trainer Ben Crane (Kurt Russell). Ben owns a horse farm without any horses. His barn stands empty, and Ben works for an Arab-owned concern managed by Palmer (David Morse). When one of Ben's horses, Soñador, breaks a leg during a race, Palmer fires Ben and orders the horse put down. Because Cale has watched the whole race, Ben deals with Palmer to save the horse and takes the horse as part of his severance pay.
We learn that Ben's father, Pop Crane (Kris Kristofferson), who lives on the Crane farm, had a similar situation with an injured horse. When Ben asks his father for help, Pop advises Ben to put the horse down. Clearly some bad blood exists between Pop and Ben, but we never get any real details other than Pop disappointed Ben at some point. Ben wants to heal Soñador and use her as breeding stock. He estimates that he can sell each foal for $300,000, which would really help to save the farm from foreclosure. The local vet (Holmes Osborne) brings the bad news that Soñador cannot get pregnant. From this point on, you should just apply standard underdog movie plotting: Cale believes in the horse and wants to race her again; after much argument Ben agrees to train the horse; and the horse makes a come from behind victory at a major race.
Nothing really unexpected happens. In working together, wounds seem to heal. Ben and Cale get closer. Ben and Pop seem to put behind them whatever issue happened in the past. Cale's mom, Lily (Elisabeth Shue), works at a diner and provides some sage advice, but really has a background role. We have a nice subplot where Manolin the jockey (Freddy Rodríguez) gets over his fear of riding and rides Soñador in the winning race. You can't help but cheer as the horse wins the race, saves the family and the farm, and everyone lives happily ever after. Usually at the end of "true stories," we get an epigraph telling about how the Crane farm now has hundreds of horses or that Soñador went on to win so many other races, but Dreamer ends with a simple, unsatisfactory, "The End."
Kurt Russell reuses the same tough and experience-worn character he has portrayed in numerous other movies: Backdraft, Stargate, and Soldier just to name a few. Russell's performance doesn't provide any new insight into fatherhood or raising horses, although he does put up a nice argument for a diverse workplace when he defends his Hispanic staff. Kristofferson plays the aged and wizened cowboy taken from two or three dozen other movies. As a directorial debut, John Gatins hasn't really done a bad job, as you do get the requisite warm and fuzzy feeling at the end of the film, but we can hope that his next effort will do more to study the characters placed in his story.
