麻豆社

Following in the well-trodden hoofprints of National Velvet, Black Beauty and Seabiscuit, Dreamer is a one girl and her horse tale that trots out equine cliches faster than John McCrirrick can talk. Starting out of the gate at a canter, John Gatins' yarn is quickly handicapped by predictable plotting and a nagging suspicion we've been round this track before. Despite thoroughbred work from Dakota Fanning, by the time the movie hits the final furlong it's only good for the glue factory.

Fanning plays Cale Crane, the adorable daughter of a down on his luck trainer (Kurt Russell) who loses his job after refusing to put down a horse with a broken leg. Accepting the filly as part of his severance pay, he nurses her back to health in the hope she might produce a future champion. Cale, however, has other ideas: to get Sonador ("dreamer" in Spanish) racing again and enter her in the Kentucky Breeders' Cup.

"WOEFULLY UNDERUSED"

You don't have to be Frankie Dettori to see where this one is going, and though the script adds a few more hurdles for our plucky heroine to negotiate, the outcome is never much in doubt. Fanning gives a typically accomplished performance, as does Russell as her put-upon dad. The rest of the cast, though, are woefully underused, most notably Elisabeth Shue as Cale's saintly mom and David Morse as Russell's nefarious ex-employer.

There's nothing wrong with feel-good family fare, but anodyne fluff like this does nobody any favours. It's the cinematic equivalent of a three-legged donkey.