Collette shines in horse racing charmer
With theaters slowly reopening, film lovers may be waiting for the perfect film to get them up off the couch and back into the multiplex. Dream Horse may be just that film: it’s an old fashioned, feel-good movie that should motivate the whole family to undertake a cinematic outing.
Based on a true story, Dream Horse follows residents of a small, working class Welsh village who, with virtually no experience, pool their money and form a syndicate to breed a racehorse and enter him in more and more high stakes races. Toni Collette stars as Jan, an animal lover and slightly depressed bartender and grocery clerk who brings the idea to her initially skeptical friends and neighbors. That the syndicate votes to name the horse Dream Alliance (“Dream” for short) tells you what kind of story you’re in for here.
Welsh director Euros Lyn and TV writer Neil McKay use somewhat stereotypical shorthand to quickly establish Jan’s malaise. She stares glumly at her alarm clock before it rings, award ribbons from former pigeon racing contests dot her walls, she’s unsmiling at work, and she’s impatient with her elderly parents. Collette, however, is easily the best thing in the movie, as she sells these moments with raw and real emotion, and imbues Jan with flashes of humor and passion that have long been dormant.
The movie does suffer slightly from a telling-not-showing problem. Although Collette has a moving and well-delivered monologue in which she tells Dream she’s tired of being perceived solely as a daughter, wife, and mother, the movie only mentions her children a few times in passing, and we never see them on screen, or witness any of Jan’s current or past interactions with them. We have to take the film’s word that Jan gave up dreams and other ambitions to create her family life. Howard (Damian Lewis, Homeland), the fellow horse racing aficionado Jan teams up with to initiate the syndicate, is a bit more fleshed out – we do actually see his growing discontent at his office job, and the strain his racing interest has taken on his family
The rest of the village is populated by various quirky and lovable characters, though, so the missing backstory elements end up not mattering too much, as we come to care for the group as a whole (the supporting cast gives off a slight Ted Lasso vibe). And sure the picture is formulaic in the way all sports movies are, but somehow Lys and Co. make us care despite ourselves. Will Dream get injured? If he does, can he recover? Can he enter the Big Race? If he does, can he win!? If you enjoyed Seabiscuit, you may already know the answers to these questions, but, thanks in large part to Collette’s performance and the enthusiasm of the village residents, you may find your heart pounding and your voice cheering during Dream’s pivotal races. “Dream reminds us what life is like when you have hope,” a character tells us at one point. After the year we’ve been though, that’s a reminder we could all use, and reason enough to seek out this warmhearted film.
—————————-
Dream Horse opens today at Bay Area theaters.
