Man, Disney sure had a busy week, what with all the screenings of Disney products. Here are a couple of reports on THE HORSE WHISPERER. There are spoilers in place in these reviews, so you may wanna skip, if you haven't read the book. The first review is mainly positive, while the second didn't care for it that much. "eye of the beholder" One person read the book, the other didn't. Hmmm, correlation? I don't know. Anyway, here's the first from Silver...
Hi, remember me (my scathing review of "No Looking Back")? Anyway I must confess that I love the IFP East. Last night I went to a screening of The Horse Whisperer and Redford came and spoke for about an hour afterwards, but more on that later.
I must preface this by saying I did read the book, albeit a year or so ago but the concept was still fresh in my mind. From the opening credits which show a horse in charcoal grays and blues, making marks in the sand with its hooves and wind sweeping its hair, you know this film is going to be visually stunning. Redford does not disappoint. His attention to detail is amazing. The story, for those of you who don't know, is about an adolescent girl in an affluent NY family who suffers a life-changing injury on her horse and loses her best friend in the process.
Devastated, her mother (Kristen Scott Thomas)refuses to put the horse to sleep and in trying to mend her relationship with her daughter decides if the horse gets fixed, so will everything else. So, she finds this man in Montana, a "horse whisperer" (Robert Redford) who she thinks can save them and drives cross country with the wild beast and sullen daughter and convinces him to help them. The story unfolds in the beautiful landscape of Montana and Redford uses every opportunity to show the audience the beauty of nature. Yet, at the same time he shows us the beauty of these people, their hands and eyes are very important to everything they are feeling. Although long, a whopping 2 hours 50 minutes, the story is gripping and compelling. There are definitely places that can be trimmed for time, but if your bladder can hold out, it's really not that bad.
After the film was over Redford came and was interviewed by a moderator an annoying woman who tried to pin everything on the movie to something else he had done. But he stood his ground and put her in her place so to speak, by refuting all her attempts at reading into everything too much - just like a typical critic. He was extremely composed and well-spoken and talked about why he wanted to do the film and why the ending is drastically different from the book (it works). All in all it was a great night and all it made me want to do was go home and rip up my storyboards and start over. (I'm directing my first feature). So Mr. Redford, you inspired me and isn't that what movies are all about?
And here is a disappointed report from the mighty steed known as Tornado....
I recently attended a preview screening of THE HORSE WHISPERER in NYC. Here's what I thought.
I didn't get a chance to read the novel, so I can't really say how it compares. A friend did tell me that in the novel, the Horse Whisperer (Redford's character) dies at the end. Needless to say, that is not the case with this film.
The story is really simple - the daughter of a rich couple (Kristen Scott Thomas is a high-powered magazine editor, Sam Neill is a successful lawyer) is at their upstate New York place and decides to go riding one morning with her best friend. They get into an accident - their horses slip on ice and panic, darting in front of an oncoming truck. The friend and her horse die - the girl is injured badly, and so is her horse, Pilgrim.
Turns out the girl has to have one leg amputated beneath the knee. When the horse is recovered, he's traumatized and horribly injured - so much so that he should be put down. Kristin Scott Thomas refuses to do that, and contacts a "Horse Whisperer" - Robert Redford in a cowboy outfit. She packs up the horse and her daughter and drives out to Montana (against his wishes) to see if he can help the traumatized horse.
They reach Montana and meet Redford, his brother (Chris Cooper) and his wife (Diane Wiest) and their kids. Reluctanly, Redford takes on the task of helping the horse, gradually coaxing the daughter into helping.
Before long Redford and Thomas develop feeling for one another. When Sam Neill comes to visit, the tension is palpable. Redford tames the horse and gets the girl to ride again, successfully rehabilitating both. But Neill has seen the writing on the wall, and takes off to New York with the daughter after delivering his wife this ultimatum - decide who you want to be with. If it's me, I'm waiting for you in New York.
After much anguish (and long shots of nothing much happening), Kristen Scott Thomas opts to return to her husband. She drives off, the Horse Whisperer sorrowfully watching her leave from atop his horse.
In the tradition of A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, Redford has produced another movie that is basically a coffee-table-picture-book movie - beautiful to look at (Robert Richardson does excellent work with the horses and the Montana countryside) but moves like molasses. Clocking in at 2 hours and 45 minutes, it could certainly have been trimmed down (like by half an hour). Horse lovers and the core, sappy chick crowd might be pleased, but everybody else is going to be pulling their hair out.
The cinematography is also intended to highlight Redford - he's give beauty shots and soft lighting usually reserved for female romantic leads. The whole picture comes off as Redford's "Ode to me" - his character never loses his cool, has all the answers, has a mystical power over horses.
Kristin Scott Thomas plays a rather one-note, bitchy woman. There is zero chemistry between them. The attraction between them doesn't seem to grow organically from the story - rather, she's attracted to him because he's the lead and he's Redford.
I heard that the daughter's role was originally intended for Natalie Portman. She would have doubtless done a better job than the girl in the film.
Sam Neill does the best he can with a rather thankless role. As far as Chris Cooper and Diane Wiest are concerned, I can't imagine any reason for doing the picture other than the check and the somewhat passe notion of saying "I worked on a Redford picture".
A boring, long sit.
