Dakota Fanning has been in several movies already even though she is only eleven. She has been in a few movies this year, including one of the biggest of the summer, War of the Worlds. I recently saw her newest movie, Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story.
The Crane family lived on a horse farm in Kentucky but they didn’t have any horses. Ben worked as a trainer for Palmer. Ben’s relationship with his dad, Pop Crane, was strained. Kale was able to get to go to work with her dad on the day of a race. Before the race, Ben thought that something didn’t seem right with Sonya, one of the horses. Palmer brushed off Ben’s concerns and insisted Sonya race. There was an accident that left Sonya with a broken leg. Ben prevented her from being put down on the track and ended up taking her home after Palmer fired him. Ben believed it was possible for Sonya’s leg to heal. Kale visited Sonya whenever she could, thrilled to finally have a horse on the farm, even though her dad said she wasn’t a pet. Ben came up with a plan but encountered obstacles and eventually changed the plan. Sonya’s leg healed and she was able to run again. The decision was made to train her to race again.
The fact that this movie was inspired by real events was made a part of the title of the movie. I hadn’t heard about anything like this, though I don’t know much about horse racing. After the movie was over, there wasn’t any kind of information shared about the characters like happens with many movies based on true stories. Things get changed around for movies even when they are based on true stories, so I was left wondering exactly what was real and what had been added or modified for the movie. I did some reading online and learned that the story was loosely based on a horse that had the same sort of injury that Sonya received. I think that the situations the family had to get through were fiction, though I could be wrong. As far as I could tell from the little I read, there was no Crane family involved. There were a few times during the movie when I was guessing about what would happen, but overall it was a predictable movie. This has been promoted as an inspirational movie so I had a feeling it would be. That didn’t make me like the movie any less.
The accident that caused Sonya’s injury happened early in the movie. It was shown in the trailers so I knew it was coming. It really wasn’t a graphic scene, but it was still difficult for me to watch. It was also upsetting to me how Palmer and some other characters were ready to have Sonya killed immedately because of the injury. One of the characters made a comment about Sonya being a $750,000 horse and it just didn’t seem believable to me that Palmer would make such a quick decision to have Sonya killed without even having a vet check her to see just exactly what the injury was and how bad it was. I have heard about horses being put down because of injuries before. That didn’t make it any more pleasant to hear characters talking about that in the movie. Things like that are upsetting to me at any time. The movie is rated PG and is a good family movie. I do think some parts of the movie could be upsetting for younger children.
Horses and horse racing played a very important part in the plot of Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story. Sonya was the only horse that received a lot of attention. The other horses were only briefly shown, usually during one of the race scenes. It was said that it would take a while for Sonya to heal and some of that was shown. It wasn’t really clear how much time passed during her recovery, or for the entire movie for that matter. Very little of the training to get Sonya ready to race again was shown. It was mostly just her racing around a track with some combination of Ben, Pop, and Kale watching with stop watches. I have no idea how accurate any thing related to the horses was. The races looked right, but I’ve only seen a few of those on tv. Someone more familiar with the horse racing world would be able to tell better how accurate the movie was.
The story of the Crane family was just as important as what was going on with Sonya. Ben and Pop didn’t have a good relationship even though the lived very close together. Once Sonya arrived on the farm, they started repairing their relationship. Ben loved his wife Lily and Kale, though he didn’t spend much time with them. Ben was distant from his daughter even when he took her to work with him. Ben’s attitudes about some things did change as Sonya recovered and his relationship with Kale improved as well. Ben and Pop had certain dreams when they were younger that didn’t work out. Kale had a dream connected to Sonya that ended up involving the rest of the family. That dream was a large part of why the relationships within the family improved. The pace did slow down when the movie was focused more on the issues within the Crane family and a few scenes did drag a little bit.
Ben was good at his job as a horse trainer. He’d grown up on the farm and had loved horses at an early age. Something had happened in the past that made him decide there wouldn’t be horses on the farm anymore. He wasn’t the most affectionate man, though that did start changing. Kurt Russell handled the part well. He had a very different, more light hearted part in Sky High, another family movie. Kale seemed to be an intelligent young girl. She loved horses and was happy to have one on the farm. Once she got an idea in her head about Sonya, she wasn’t giving up on it. Dakota Fanning was wonderful in the part. I have now seen her in several movies and I’ve enjoyed her performance in all of them. I read that the part of Kale was originally for a boy and it was changed specifically to get Fanning in the movie.
Lily Crane was barely in the movie. She turned up in a few scenes here and there to talk some sense into Ben. Elisabeth Shue did a good job with the part. She just didn’t have much of anything to do. Shue and Fanning actually worked together in Hide and Seek. Pop was Ben’s dad. He got along fine with Lily and Kale, but had basically no relationship with Ben at the beginning of the movie. Pop was well known as a horse trainer. He didn’t want to help with Sonya at first. Eventually he changed his mind. He still had a dream or two as well. Kris Kristofferson was really good in the part. Palmer was the token villain and a rather flat character. He only cared about winning races and if a horse was hurt, he didn’t care. He wasn’t a nice man. David Morse was fine. It would have been nicer if he’d had a bit more to do.
CAST
Dakota Fanning - Kale Crane
Kris Kristofferson - Pop Crane
David Morse - Palmer
Kurt Russell - Ben Crane
Elisabeth Shue - Lily Crane
Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story was an entertaining movie that I enjoyed. It can be good for families, though I think certain parts may be too upsetting for younger children. They could also get bored during the slower parts of the movie. Fans of the cast should give this movie a chance.
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