THE HORSE WHISPERER
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Robert Redford directs himself as a
Montana horse lover who solves emotional problems
between horses and their owners. Kristin Scott
Thomas is a New York mother of a girl who had a
tragic accident on a horse. In calling on Redford
to cure her daughter and her horse, Thomas finds
herself drawn to Redford and to the Montana life
style. The film is a little too obvious, though
polished and often well observed. The film should
play well with a BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY sort of
audience. Rating: 7 (0 to 10), +2 (-4 to +4)
New York Critics: 15 positive, 4 negative, 3 mixed
At one point in THE HORSE WHISPERER magazine editor Annie MacLean (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) looks at a proposed cover and says something like "The photo is perfect, the cropping is perfect, and the layout is perfect. It's dull. Do it over." Don't get me wrong. THE HORSE WHISPERER is a good film and not dull, but that quote comes pretty close to pointing to the film's biggest weakness. The story is just a bit straightforward and obvious. There are no surprises to anyone who sees the trailer and makes all the obvious extrapolations. Richard LaGravenese who wrote the screenplay for THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY co-wrote the screenplay here also and it shows. Robert Redford co-produced and directed as well as taking the top-billed role of Tom Booker.
Annie MacLean is an editor on a high-profile magazine. She has what she thinks is a happy marriage to lawyer Robert MacLean (Sam Neill) and a daughter, Grace (Scarlett Johansson) just 13. And Grace has a horse, Pilgrim. One icy day Grace is riding with a friend and their horses slip on a slippery hill. In a nightmarish scene they role and slide right into the path of an oncoming truck. The friend and her horse are killed outright. Pilgrim is injured about as badly as a horse can be without it being fatal. Grace loses a leg. Distraught over her daughter in the hospital, Annie refuses to that the irreversible step of letting the veterinarian put down the suffering Pilgrim. Weeks later the result is a daughter and a horse, both of whom have lost the will to live. The maimed horse is wild and the daughter just simpers and resents her mother's cool detachment. Grace retreats into the surrogate life of television watching. The pressure of bottling up her emotions makes Annie even more pushy and intolerant.
Annie decides that what is needed is to have acknowledged horse expert Tom Booker bring her daughter and Pilgrim back together. When Booker refuses to come to New York to look a the horse, over Grace's and Robert's objection Annie buys a trailer and drives across country to Montana with Grace and Pilgrim with the goal of getting Booker to reunite Grace and Pilgrim. It is a long siege and Annie gets to know Booker's family and the people of the sparse Montana range. Naturally Redford's character is a real man with a natural no-nonsense view of life that spreads oil on all troubled waters. Tom is a man who always knows the right thing to say and makes it look easy. Annie had hoped for a dual healing experience of curing Grace and Pilgrim, but she herself changes as much as either of them and becomes a fuller person.
In the wrong hands Nicholas Evans's novel could be a maudlin and over-romantic opus, but Redford is, in fact, more talented as a director than he is as an actor. If anything the film is too polished. THE HORSE WHISPERER may be a little heavy on the perfect landscape shots. This is as good a place as any to note that coming from Touchstone/Disney the photography will probably also show to its best advantage. More than any other studio, Disney tries to release prints on high-quality film stock. A print may collect scratches after it is out of Disney's hands, but there will be very few blotches flashed on the screen because Disney Studios did not cut corners on quality. The score by Thomas Newman uses instruments appropriate to the Montana setting.
The casting is as polished as the photography with some very respectable names. Perhaps Redford himself may be getting a little old to be playing romantic leads at 61 and his age is starting to show in his face. Kristin Scott Thomas, best known for THE ENGLISH PATIENT, is an attractive and intelligent actress. Sam Neill is another good actor who in this film has too small a role. Rounding out the cast are Diane Wiest and Chris Cooper. Overall this film does not do much that is not predictable from the earliest parts of the film, but it tells its romantic story well. I rate it a 7 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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