The writing and directing debut of the mere co-writer on Coach Carter, John Gatins, is one of the endless supply of inspirational true sports stories to come to the screen, this one the horsetrack story, and only fractionally true, of a filly called Soñador (Spanish for Dreamer, but Mariah's Storm in real life) who in midrace breaks her cannon bone (something to look up in the dictionary afterwards) and will never be able to race again, though with proper care, particularly from a blond moppet, just might walk, and just might breed, except that she turns out to be infertile, too, and then turns out to be able to do more than just walk. Admirers of Seabiscuit will be prone to find this redundant, but nonadmirers will be free to find it contrastingly modest, unpretentious, and sensible, if in a frankly sentimental vein; richly, radiantly photographed by the reliable Fred Murphy; and touchingly played by eleven-year-old Dakota Fanning, and even more touchingly, because taciturnly, by Kurt Russell as the horse's trainer and girl's father. With Elisabeth Shue, Kris Kristofferson, and David Morse. (2005) — Duncan Shepherd
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