Redford whispers soft and low
The Horse Whisperer A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1998 By Michael Redman
*** (out of ****)
As trite as it sounds, life is full of potentials. Every day we wake up, there are new alternatives. Every time we turn around, there are new options.
With so many possibilities, often it's difficult to make choices. And after we've made them, we wonder what would have happened if we had taken the other path. The what-ifs can be infuriating. What would have happened if I had left this person to be with that one? Quit this job and taken the other?
One absolute truth is that we never know those answers. We can't live both lives. As difficult as it may be, we have to make the choice and go on.
Annie MacLean (Kristen Scott Thomas) must make one of those painful decisions. She either leaves everything behind for a new love and a new life or she abandons her would-be lover to return to a relationship she has devoted her life to. Either way she loses. Either way she wins.
In a horrendous accident, Annie's daughter Grace (Scarlett Johansson) and her horse Pilgrim slide in the snow into the path of an 18-wheeler. Grace looses half of her leg. Her best friend is killed. Pilgrim is badly hurt and driven mad. The vet wants to put the horse down, but Annie refuses permission.
The 14-year old girl sinks into depression. Her mother and father, Robert (Sam Neill), are desperate to do something to pull her out of it. When Annie happens upon an article about a mysterious "horse whisperer" who can work wonders with equine problems, she packs up Pilgrim and the reluctant Grace and heads out in their Range Rover for a New York to Montana trek.
After they arrive at his ranch, cowboy shaman Tom Booker (Robert Redford) reluctantly agrees to look at the horse. He has already told her "no" on the phone ("Does 'no' in Montana mean 'yes' where you are?"), but Pilgrim is there and Booker has a heart of gold.
All four of the major characters (Annie, Grace, Tom and Pilgrim) are damaged goods. Annie is so obsessed with her career that she's lost her life. Grace believes that she can't go on. Pilgrim is crazed. Booker's beloved wife left him years before and he's never been able to fall in love again.
The interaction between them brings each to a better way of being. Booker works with the horse and at the same time Grace starts to come out of her black mood. Annie, the hard New York magazine editor, also begins to soften to the simple life and to the quiet complex man.
She and Tom begin to explore their mutual attraction. They slow dance together and the desire is obvious. Director Redford gets more out of a hand on a back and a leg touching a thigh than most other directors can accomplish with two sweaty naked people. When Robert shows up to visit, Annie is faced with the fateful choice.
Redford is obviously in love with the big sky country. It's not difficult to imagine why he spends most of his time on his ranch in Utah rather than his home in New York. Judging from the film, you know where his heart is and he wants you to feel the same.
This is a beautiful film. The affectionate look at the countryside is breathtaking and the story unfolds in an unhurried natural manner. When Booker and Pilgrim stare into each others' eyes in a field of tall grass for what seems to be hours, it's real and makes sense. He and Annie take a sunset ride to a gorgeous vista and somehow it isn't corny.
Even with the complex issues that the film addresses and the longing gazes between man and woman and man and horse, the movie's plot is a bit simplistic. There is little doubt as to the outcome of the story. After the plot is laid out, you know what's going to happen to Grace and Pilgrim. Even Annie and Tom's relationship is fairly predictable, as is the ending. The strength of the film is that, although you know what is going to happen, it happens with style.
All of the actors are believable and some fine performances are on the screen. Even the small parts (Chris Cooper and Dianne Wiest as Tom's brother and sister-in-law) are tasty.
Redford is never disappointing as an actor, but there's an oddness to his portrayals. He's a little too clean. His characters are likable and engrossing but they're somewhat sterile. Tom Booker is the kind of guy you'd love to have as a friend, but you'd always suspect that somewhere there's a hidden dark side. He's just too darned nice.
The ranch life is also fairly antiseptic. It all looks beautiful and calm. There's a place for everything and everything is in its place. In my experience, where there are horses, there are piles of...well, you know. Country life has its attractions, but it's not nearly as neat and tidy as Redford would have us believe.
This is a fairy tale for adults so it doesn't matter much that Tom and his ranch aren't realistic. We aren't meant to question the lack of faults. We are supposed to feel the message.
Although the film is overly long at nearly three hours, the length and slowness imparts the sensuousness of natural surroundings. As I was watching, I was reminded that I hadn't been out in the country for weeks.
It's necessary to get away from our everyday lives occasionally and touch the dirt. Living in town and working every day causes us to lose the big picture. The experience of watching the movie is a virtual visit, almost like being there. It's not the same, but it does remind us that there's something else besides jobs and television.
(Michael Redman has written this column for 23 years, but now he's thinking about camping.)
[This appeared in the 5/21/98 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at redman@bvoice.com]
-- mailto:redman@bvoice.com This week's film review at http://www.bvoice.com/ Film reviews archive at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman
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