‘Dream Horse’ will have you hooked until the finish line
MOVIE REVIEW
“DREAM HORSE”
Rated PG. On VOD.
Grade: B+
Underdog race horse movie “Dream Horse” is like every other underdog race horse movie you have ever seen. But it’s not like you’ve watched so many of them, and its cast and its particulars make it fun and worth seeing. You may remember that Jonathan Swift’s great fictional adventurer Lemuel Gulliver preferred the company of horses to that of human beings, and real-life-based tale “Dream Horse” will reinforce that opinion.
Jan Vokes (Aussie Toni Collette) is a bartender in a South Wales town. As a young person, Jan raised whippets and pigeons. With their children grown and moved out, Jan and husband Brian (Owen Teale, “Game of Thrones”) live alone. Gap-toothed Brian, who has arthritis, sits in front of the TV when he isn’t snoring. They have an almost horse-sized hound and visit Jan’s aged parents weekly. Jan works in a market during the day, and a pub in the afternoon and evening. One day, Jan hears a local tax adviser named Howard Davis (Damian Lewis) talk with pride and feeling about a race horse he once owned (and which threatened to ruin his marriage), and she is inspired.
Renewing their sleepy and unfulfilling relationship, Jan and horse lover Brian buy a brood mare named Rewbell and keep her on an allotment. Rewbell is then bred to a stallion, and the foal dubbed Dream Alliance is born in 2001. Jan and a group of her friends and townsfolk form a syndicate to contribute 10 pounds a week each for the horse’s upkeep. Eventually, Jan gets well-known trainer Philip Hobbs (Nicholas Farrell) to take Dream Alliance on and keep the horse on his prestigious farm.
The undercurrents of the film are second chances and the glowing embers of Welsh nationalism. Jan gets Howard to be “racing manager,” although he keeps this secret from his wife (Joanna Page). Members of the syndicate travel to Dream Alliance’s races on a bus singing Welsh songs. They are a virtual who’s who of residents of the town. Elderly singleton Maureen (Welsh acting royalty Sian Phillips, ex-wife of the late Irishman Peter O’Toole) and local barfly Kerby (Welshman Karl Johnson) are standouts. Directed by Welsh film and TV director Euros Lyn (TV’s “Daredevil”) and written by Neil McKay, “Dream Horse” follows the usual arc of this type of film. Will you wish the film also had subtitles? Oh, God yes.
We learn from Jan’s father that she and Brian expected their first child (they had two) when she was only 17, suggesting plans long put aside. Dream Alliance comes in second at Perth. At one race, a member of the syndicate boasts of “taking a pee next to Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.” Because they are owners, lowly members of the syndicate are suddenly rubbing elbows in the race VIP areas with lords, ladies and sheikhs, some of whom are shocked at Kerby’s oafish behavior and coarse language. Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins OBE sings the Welsh national anthem Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, and the syndicate sings joyously along. The build-up leads Dream Alliance to the Welsh Grand National.
I could not tell you if Collette’s Welsh accent is good or not. But she remains a powerful screen presence, and when she urges Dream Alliance on with a muttered, “C’mon, my boy,” you will want to get up and run, too. “Dream Horse” was preceded by a 2015 documentary “Dark Horse: The Incredible True Story of Dream Alliance.” Are “Dream Horse” viewers ready for two singalong versions of Welshman Tom Jones’ hit “Delilah”? You’d better be, you yob.
(“Dream Horse” contains profanity and mature themes.)
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3yt7Qry
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