'Secretariat'

'Secretariat' (PG) (2 stars)

Writer: Mike Rich based on book "Secretariat" by William Nack
Director: Randall Wallace
Starring: Diane Lane, John Malkovich, Margo Martindale, Scott Glenn, James Cromwell, Dylan Walsh, Nelsan Ellis, Nestor Serrano, Kevin Connolly, Fred Dalton Thompson, Amanda Michalka

"Secretariat" captures the early 70's look flawlessly with it's costumes and production design. It has well directed horse racing scenes and the races are all thrilling. It is from Walt Disney who have mastered the inspiring, underdog, real life sports drama very well. "Miracle" is one of their best movies of this kind. Everything is in place to inspire us and have us rooting for the special horse to capture the Triple Crown. So why was I underwhelmed and bored to death with this movie? It has another wonderful and solid performance by Diane Lane, who like Jeff Bridges was before, keeps getting undervalued. I grew up watching Diane Lane and falling in love with her and I always love her performances. Like I mentioned before the movie looks real but it does not feel lived in. Maybe because I knew how this would end I couldn't get myself excited in the story. Most of us know that in 1973 Secretariat was the first horse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown in horse racing. So we all know the results of each race and we know that Secretariat did win the Triple Crown. That shouldn't matter because I do admit the racing scenes are very thrilling and well done. The only problem was except for the Diane Lane character I felt that the other actors were playing dress up and didn't connect to me. I felt they were caricatures even including the John Malkovich character. Malkovich is very good here and colorful but there are no levels to his character.

"Secretariat" starts with telling us how house wife Penny Chennery took over her father's horse farm and brought Secretariat to infamy. She finds a trainer in Lucien Laurin, played by Malkovich, and a great jockey and starts to ride Secretariat to the Triple Crown. She does have to make a lot of financial moves to get investors and have the horse trained sometime to the expense of her family. Diane Lane is very good here playing a great female character who has strength and determination. The other performances are solid especially Margo Martindale as Penny's friend. I should have liked this movie but I had a few problems that bugged me. First Penny's father, played by Scott Glenn, has a stroke and as Secretariat wins trophies we see Penny giving them to the father. That is very sweet but the father is then neglected for the rest of the movie and never brought up again. I also didn't learn anything about how to train a horse to race. Not at any point do we get any insight, just some hocus pocus Disney magic. The screenplay is standard rah rah dialogue and it feels all surface and fake. I do think kids who don't know Secretariat's story will find this exciting and maybe women because Penny is a great role model. I think others will be underwhelmed because I think the movie is missing a pulse. I don't know why I didn't get involved but I know that something like "Miracle" got me pumped up. I didn't feel that way with "Secretariat". Maybe because I find horse racing boring or that I knew the outcome going in. I really think it doesn't have what movies like "Miracle" have, a personality.