Movie Review of "Dreamer"
Rated PG
By CK Movie Kid Jonathan Lack

Inspired by a true story.

We sure do hear this a lot in movie titles today. And any time the words Based on or Inspired by a true story follow the title of a movie, you can tell it'll be a traditional underdog story. Since so many movies lately have been like this, the concept has gotten old by the time we get to the movie Dreamer. Maybe this movie would have been better if we weren't seeing a movie like this every other week.

Underdog "history" stories have their own categories by now. And that category is full of movies. And instead of having each one of them have their own formula, they all follow the same rubric. Something happens to someone and then some miracle enters their lives that solve everything after a lot of yelling, a lot of crying, and a few to many "inspirational" speeches/talks. Dreamer had the chance to stray from this rubric, but sadly, it didn't.

A trainer, Ben Crane, and his daughter, Cale, witness the injury of a racing horse. Ben is fired and is given the horse, named Sonador, as part of his severance package. They nurse the horse back to health and enter it in the Breeder's Cup.

You can guess the rest of the story.

As I said above, the movie didn't need to follow the underdog story rubric. Then again, no movie has to follow that rubric. They just do. However, I will have to admit this movie was a bit better than many underdog stories this year, despite it dragged in the middle. (Another characteristic of the underdog movie.)

But, this movie was, without a doubt, targeted on younger audiences and their families, particularly if they like horses. No matter how many horse movies are made, younger audiences will never tire of them.

I would recommend this to ages 7 and up. There was nothing particularly inappropriate with this, but very young children will be bored with this film.

So if you want to see this movie with the family go ahead and see it. If you don't, I might rent it at the most when it comes out on video. (October, 2005)