Product Description

A DRAMA ABOUT A FATHER WHO, FOR THE LOVE OF HIS DAUGHTER, SACRIFICES ALMOST EVERYTHING TO SAVE THE LIFE OF AN INJURED RACEHORSE AND BRING THE PROMISING FILLY BACK TO HER FORMER GLORY. INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6168 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2006-03-21
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.com
The title is a mouthful, but Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story hits the winner's circle as a warm and inspiring family film. Ben Crane (Kurt Russell) is a Kentucky horse trainer who watches in horror as a championship filly breaks its leg during a practice run. Ordinarily that means curtains, but today Ben's daughter, Cale (Dakota Fanning), is at the track, and Ben impulsively buys the horse and loses his job in one fell swoop. The rehabilitation process is almost too much for a farm that's already struggling to survive in a modern economy, but the horse turns out to be a much-needed salve to the nearly broken family, including Ben's wife (Elisabeth Shue) and father (Kris Kristofferson). The cast is excellent, especially Fanning (who at age 11 has become a major star and was branded by Entertainment Weekly as the most powerful actress in Hollywood), and the film is well-paced by director-writer John Gatins and beautifully shot by cinematographer Fred Murphy. Surely the ultimate fate of the horse and the family won't surprise anyone, but young girls who love horses often don't need a surprise ending. They need a reason to cheer, and Dreamer delivers all the way. (Ages 6 and older: moments of horse peril) --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

A heck of a grand movie in spite of the cliched premise.
My wife and I both agree, that this is about the best horseracing movie we've seen, all the way around--cast, direction, script, soundtrack. The premise is a movie cliche, of course, and the end is mighty predictable. What makes this movie rise above all the others is mostly the marvelous cast.

Kurt Russell looks like a Kentucky horse trainer. His run-down farm looks like the real thing. Kris Kristoferson is his distant and mouthy father, a splendid choice for the role. Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Shue are just right in their parts--archetypical rather than stereotypical. The string music speaks of Kentucky, but not of the hills.

Morse plays the instrument of the sellout, money, power, and corruption, a voice that small time horse trainers will recognize as true. The conflict here is between values, the slick money men vs. flesh-and-blood people. The Saudi princes get a role in here, but they are neither bashed nor glorified. Kentuckians will recognize many bit players in here too, including jockey Tammy Fox.

Based on a true story, as they say. The first half of the movie could be based upon a lot of true stories. A lot. The last half of the movie is a fantasy, but we happen to know some fantasies that came true.

Not just that an independent smalltime horseman can win a big race, although that happens now and then--no, more often the way this fantasy works out is, that someone who loves horses gets to spend a lifetime working with them, while supporting their family, and free of the corruption of drugs and the cheap and commercial fast buck.

Independently poor--but by God independent.

"When you ran the earth shook and the sky opened and mere motrals parted..."
Dakota Fanning's new horse film, "Dreamer", was not a movie I was planning to see. The trailer was kind of boring and while I enjoy a good horse yarn there's a lot out there right now. But I got free tickets, so I went. And while "Dreamer" doesn't approach such gold standards as "National Velvet" or "The Black Stallion", the film is a well-made and ultimately thrilling story of a horse and its girl.

Fanning stars as Cale Crane, the latest in a long line of horse people in the Crane family. The Cranes have fallen on hard times: their horse farm is being sold off piece by piece, Mom has to pick up shifts in a diner, and when one night a horse Mr. Crane is training takes a bad fall Dad loses his job and inherits the busted-up horse to boot.

Universally advised to put the horse down, Crane (Kurt Russel) instead plans to fix her up just enough so he can breed her. How that rather reasonable plan evolves into a plan to race the horse, whose name "Sonador" means "dreamer" in Spanish, is the fun of the movie and what makes it a notch above the typical "inspirational" story.

The first half of the film drags a bit (shots of clouds going by and grass standing still don't help), but it gets better, and Fanning as usual is great. I thought the young kids in the audience I was with would be bored by the relatively slow tone, but they absolutely loved the movie, and for the entire last five minutes of the film they were cheering and yelling and you couldn't hear what was going on in the film. Based on that reaction I give this film four stars and recommended it to families, especially those with any horse-loving girls. Just explain to your kids that jumping off the house roof onto hay bales is a bad idea, no matter what Fanning does.

GRADE: B

Dreamer
This is a very good fact based drama. The story is solid, but what makes this film outstanding is the cast chosen, and not enough good things can be said about them. Kurt Russell is a horse trainer from Kentucky. His look and mannerisms are spot on, and he carries this role well. Dakota Fanning is the daughter and the heart of the movie with Elizabeth Shue cast as mom. Kris Kristoferson is the father/grandfather, and no one could have played this role. His gruff unbending exterior is flawless.