Although it may be heretical to a devotee of the sport, I just don’t see any variety in horse racing. One is just like any other to me. They go around in a circle, they end up at the finish line.
And that’s an apt metaphor for a movie like Secretariat, where one knows for the entire two-hour run time how the film will end (Spoiler alert: Secretariat turns out to be some kind of super
horse). There is no suspense here, so a film like this must be highly effective in order to keep the audience’s attention.
The bad news: the film isn’t highly effective. The good news: it’s effective.
This is a family film, in the sense that few people would find anything objectionable in its content. On the other hand, Disney label aside, I don’t think too many kids are going to find it an entertaining watch.
This is also a family film in that it is loaded with “teachable moments.” Kids might not find it enjoyable, but, like vegetables, you may want to make them take it anyway.
The film opens with the perfect suburban life of Penny Chenery (Diane Lane) being disrupted by a phone call news that her mother has died. With kids and husband in tow she leaves Colorado for her parents’ Virginia horse farm. With mom gone and dad in the throes of dementia, it’s up to her to take the reins.
The costuming, sets, and props up to this point seem to have been designed to connote the 1950s. It all looks like some strange, horse-themed episode of Mad Men. And then the shift begins. One character makes a reference to Superfly. Chenery’s daughter plans a Viet Nam protest. And Penny runs face first into a wall of chauvinism.
The film tends to get heavy handed at times. Immediately upon assuming control of the family business, Penny tries to seek advice from a fellow horse owner who is dining at a country club. She’s stopped by an employee, who tells her she’s trying to enter a men only club. Penny recalls her father telling her that great horses come from mares just as much as stallions. Penny’s husband (Dylan Walsh) sees the error of his unsupportive ways, and apologizes for all in a hamfisted monologue.
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