Dreamer

Dreamer is simple, moving and arrives in the winner's circle.

Official Dreamer Site
Family Drama
Starring Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Elizabeth Shue, Kris Kristofferson
Rated PG (for brief language)
Running Time: 102 Minutes
Released:October 28th, 2005


4 Out Of 5 Bites

In Dreamer, you get the familiar "girl-and-her-horse" set up. In the face of insurmountable and conflicting odds both from within and without, a girl, and subsequently those she loves (who also tow an even greater line of despair.....failing marriage, foreclosure, loss of income, menial servitude, loss of manlihood, strained paternal relationships to name a few) find a way to live again. And not just live, but thrive in each others' presence once more, all because of a girl's love for a horse.

Inherent in this movie is any child's desire to latch onto something....anything.....that will bring together a fracturing family and rescue it from doom. This will definitely strike a consonant chord with the over half of this present generation's having emerged from some experience with divorce in their families. And for those in this generation unfamiliar with 1944's National Velvet and 1979's Black Stallion, Dreamer will accomplish much the same in portraying the allure of the horse to young girls and boys.

In any case, it isn't hard to become endeared to Cale (Dakota Fanning) and her efforts to realize the dream she has for an injured race horse named Sonador. The young filly is taken in by her recently fired father, Ben, (Kurt Russell) and his contingency of Mexican hired hands, a trainer, Balon, and exercise jockey, Manolin (Luis Guzman and Fredddy Rodriguez, respectively). Ben, in a heated fit of pent-up frustration at the greedy hands of his boss (David Morse), counters his will to destroy the horse, especially with his daughter present in the stall just after the horse goes down on the track. In the consequential light of Ben's boss ingnoring his warnings prior to the race that the filly's leg was not well is where the lives of both Ben and the Sonador are illumined and hang in the balance. Ben cashes in and reaps unemployment, a broken horse and much uncertainty.

Bringing the horse to the family farm offers Ben a chance at not only a possible and improbable income in rejuvenating a downed race horse, but also rekindling a faltering relationship with his father, "Pop" (Kris Kristofferson). Through his grit and wisdom for the horse (as well as some timely generosity) comes a basis for hope that will flow through Ben and subsequently, Cale, who doesn't really know yet how not to hope. There are the classical ups-and-downs with the recovery and challenges to the "dream" and newer goals to attain as they present themselves. Additionally, Ben discovers his wife (Elizabeth Shue) again, who sometimes seems like an afterthought given the activity around her.

For Cale, consciously or not, her drive to revive this horse may be seen as a child's effort to revive what she fears she's losing in her family. In the familiar, idyllic and simple setting of central Kentucky and Louisiana, there is a sweetness exuding from the film over-and-against the patented story-line. Fanning excelled again, acting like and through the child that she is without being overcome by the determination asked of her by her character. You hope that Ben's frenetic and distant shell of a man cracks enough to let his daughter in. You, of course, pull for the horse, maybe an unwitting, pivotal player in the drama....but maybe there is something more mysterious to her. The bad guy deserves his just rewards and you just want the family to get a break. Dreamer does not fail to disappoint in this, and manages to do so minus the sap and muggish sentimentality prone to the subject matter. Dreamer is simple, moving and arrives in the winner's circle.

The Legend Of Zorro

Just don't let Zorro, Jr., find the mask

Official Zorro Site
Action/Adventure
Starring Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rufus Sewell
Rated PG (for violence)
Running Time: 130 Minutes
Released:October 28th, 2005







2 Out Of 5 Bites


Not quite so hot off the heels of 1998's The Mask of Zorro- a decent return of the character first played by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr- Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones reprise their roles in Legend. There was, however, a bit more trouble resurrecting the charm and grandiosity of Mask.

Under the same direction of Martin Campbell, it wasn't that the effort was lacking in attempts to recapturing the fresh wit and energy of the preceding installment. Perhaps the film just tried too hard, most notably (and for instance) in establishing comedic relief in Zorro's horse, assigning the equine character with implausible behaviors that bordered on the preposterous and the cartoonish and served only as an unnecessary and unfunny diversion, except for some children I suppose. With that in mind, it isn't altogether unwatchable, it's just tiresome.

Don Alejandro de la Vega (Banderas), as the cantankerous nobleman of Spanish California who doubles as the swashbuckling avenger of the oppressed, is almost unstoppable and untouchable in the physical conflicts. One wonders if that leather whip EVER fails to completely grab sufficiently and at the opportune times to support Zorro as he whips and then flies, careening out of danger from perilous heights.

Zorro's long-suffering wife, Elena, (Zeta-Jones), is immediately pitted against her husband early. She is weary from his escapades and longs for a more suitable quiet family life. And who can blame her? How many husbands could convincingly and persistently don such a costume under such pretenses and disappear doing who-knows-what? Even as Elena is standing there in their first scene together, one still suspects- even through her protestations and through all the bickering that will ensue- she will align and fight alongside her man. But not before she upends him with an ultimatum even the almighty Zorro can't possibly live up to- give up his Zorro-ness and pack it in at home. And with that, he's out the door. Despite a sub-plot of her forced consignment to a US governmental investigation into a nefarious plan (around which the movie revolves) involving the 19th century equivalent to our car bombs, the incessant yipping and bickering between them becomes smothering.

And so, an 1850's era California is on the cusp of statehood with the Union. There are people and shadowy organizations who have other sights set on a dastardly plan to thwart not just the state's plans, but the country as a whole. We are supposed to bemoan the estrangement between Alejandro and Elena while holding out hope that somehow they will forge ahead together again to battle Rufus Sewell's character's organized terroristic machinations (yes, this is 1850's America). Aiding and abetting the disjointed storyline is Alejandro and Elena's son, Joaquin (Adrian Alonso), who, all told, isn't too bad as a child actor here. Sometimes you tend to want him to chill his flitting about like a rabid chipmunk while he's easily accomplishing some rather adult physical feats. And you want the adults to stop acting like children and the horses to start acting like horses.