Sweet Dreamer clears Hollywood hurdles

The field of runners in Dreamer, the latest family-oriented horse-racing movie, is impressive. Old stallions Kris Kristofferson and Kurt Russell enter the paddock as down-on-their luck father-and-son horse trainers, alongside young filly of the moment, Dakota Fanning.

And it's Fanning who sets the pace as Russell's daughter, determined to re-train an injured racehorse saved from the needle by her father.

Also at the races are Elisabeth Shue, as Russell's tut-tutting wife, and a couple of rough-looking Mexican stable boys, played by Luis Guzman from Traffic and Freddy Rodriguez from TV's Six Feet Under, who give the rich man's world some street cred.

Resemblances to the Seventies hit International Velvet as well as such films as The Horse Whisperer and Seabiscuit are presumably intended. You are even warned up front that the film is based on a true story - otherwise it would be simply too good to be true.

John Gatins directs his own script at a steady canter and for all the film's talk about the triumph of love and faith over money and rivalry, it's winning an ugly race and a pot of money that provides the photo-finish.

Meanwhile, there's no question that it's Dakota Fanning's film. Now one of Hollywood's biggest stars, she is more than just another Tatum O'Neill. Fanning has a loveable smile and a wounded scowl that would melt any heart. Thanks to her, an otherwise predictable trot through Hollywood's prizewinning formulas does leave a sugar lump in the throat.

Dreamer
Cert: U