Cinema Verdict Review: Secretariat

Secretariat

OPENING: 10/08/2010

STUDIO: Disney

RUN TIME: 166 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
The Impossible True Story

Opening Statement
I have to admit, there are few genres that I grow weary of as quickly as the inspirational sports movie. It’s a genre in which a small handful of rousing successes have served as the template for countless tedious knock-offs. I can’t say I was too excited about seeing Secretariat, which looked to be another typically formulaic telling of a story everyone knows. To a certain degree, it’s exactly what I expected… the usual clichés are employed without much hesitation. However, I have to admit that I was surprised by how effective the movie is despite its predictable nature.

Facts of the Case
The story begins when Penny Chenery (Diane Lane, Unfaithful) inherits the responsibility of taking care of her father’s (Scott Glenn, The Silence of the Lambs) land and horses. It’s expected that she’ll simply sell his valuable mares and move on with her life, but Penny finds herself enormously interested in the family business. Two colts that have been sired by a champion racehorse are about to be born. One of the horses will go to Penny and the other will go to a fellow breeder (James Cromwell, Babe). Who gets which is decided by a coin toss. Penny loses, but gets the colt she wanted all along anyway.

That colt grows up to be Secretariat, a remarkably gifted stallion with endless potential. Unfortunately, Penny has fallen into a tough financial situation just as it looks like she might have a champion race horse on her hands. The obvious way out is to sell Secretariat (which will more the cover the debt), but Penny refuses. She’s determined to take her horse as far as he’ll go, no matter what the cost. Here’s where it gets sticky: If Secretariat loses, his value depreciates considerably and she will no longer be able to use him to cover her debts. Will Secretariat prove to be the great champion Penny believes him to be, or will he lead her to financial ruin?

The Evidence
Odds are extremely high you already know the answer to that question. I suspect the vast majority of viewers will know going in that Secretariat won the Triple Crown and set a number of records. So why does the movie work? Because director Randall Wallace (who penned Braveheart and directed We Were Soldiers) doesn’t build his film around the suspense of whether Secretariat will win, but rather on re-capturing the thrill of witnessing this remarkable creature achieve things no other horse before or since has.

It took me a while to warm up to the film, because it takes a while for Wallace to hit his stride. The opening half-hour or so is a clumsy, stilted, unpersuasive drama that goes through the motions in a manner that feels alarmingly artificial. The dialogue rings false time and time again, while the actors initially seem to have fallen into the trap of paying too much attention to the fact that they are recreating history. The stuff involving Penny’s family conflicts (she doesn’t have time to be there for her kids, she and her husband squabble over finances, she’s attempting to cope with the fact that her father is suffering from dementia) play like something from a cheap made-for-tv melodrama.

But then, something happens. Once Secretariat enters the picture, the filmmakers and actors seem to step up to the next level. As the mundane subplots start to fizzle out and give way to the principle story of Secretariat’s rise to fame, the movie sharpens its focus and substantially increases its dramatic intensity. Wallace may not be particularly adept at creating nuanced, three-dimensional family drama, but he can certainly capture the primal thrill of a race. Like the title character, Secretariat starts out miserably before gaining surprising momentum and sprinting to victory.

Horse racing is a sport that seems tailor-made for cinema, and Wallace manages to wring drama out of the proceedings from every angle. He spends a good deal of time setting up the stakes; developing characters that have a lot to lose personally, financially or professionally (sometimes all three). After all the hard work and preparation, everything is decided in a handful of breathless moments. Secretariat’s final victory is underscored not by the usual swelling orchestra but by a boisterous choral performance of the gospel song “O Happy Day.” It’s not just a victory; it’s a religious experience.

The performances are mixed, but mostly effective. The sturdiest turn comes from Diane Lane, making a return to acting after a brief hiatus. Her work as Penny is not the sort of showy performance that’s likely to generate awards, but she sets out to create a distinct character and gets the job done nicely. John Malkovich is more hit-and-miss as trainer Lucian Lauren; his oddball delivery sometimes seems ill-suited to the lines he is given. Even so, he’s never uninteresting to watch. Old pros like James Cromwell, Scott Glenn and Dylan Baker aren’t given much to do, while actor/political figure Fred Thompson seems to enjoy chewing on a few scenes. The one performance that just doesn’t work at all is Dylan Walsh as Penny’s husband; it’s a bland portrait of a bland character.

Closing Statement
While there are scenes in Secretariat which are handled quite badly, once the film finds its footing it proves a rousing, enjoyable slice of entertainment. If you’re looking for a pleasant, family-friendly way to spend two hours, you could certainly do worse.

The Verdict
7/10