Review of Secretariat (2010) by Travis S — 11 Dec 2011

I remember Randall Wallace as the writer of "Braveheart" and the director of "We Were Soldiers". So when I see a new film of his that feels more like an ABC Family Night film and less of an epic biopic that is when the film becomes less and less interesting for me. The key to making this film better cut out the artsy cutesy feel when it's not working.

Some years ago, a little film called "Seabiscuit" came out and won my praise for it's strong look at not only the horse and his amazing career, but at the lives around the horse. "Secretariat" does a good job of focusing on Penny Chenery (Diane Lane), but there were some great missed opportunities to go deeper into characters that the film almost completely disregarded. Best example would be the Secretariat's caretaker, an African American who never left the horse's side, and that's basically one of few things I found out about him. Another huge issue I had with this film is that it felt rushed, way too rushed. Example, if someone hadn't told me how the horse's name went from Big Red to Secretariat just one day before seeing the film, I never would have understood the film's explanation of this.

Allow me to cut straight to the chase. This film was too Disney for my taste. Meaning, Disney has this unique way of making stories that may not have been that much entertaining to start with, they take them and sugar coat them to be fun for the whole family. Cheap laughs, kid and adult fun. When it works it is brilliant. When it doesn't, it is over the top painful. It doesn't work for "Secretariat". Half the movie feels over the top, from the acting, to the directing. One of my favorite examples in this film is Mrs. Hamm (Margo Martindale), she was Penny's biggest support, and instead of standing beside her, I felt very annoyed with her. The same mutual feeling also goes with how I also felt about the kids that played Penny children.

Those who liked the film have told me that you need to be a horse person to like this film. I disagree. I probably would've liked the film a whole lot more if they just had been more creative and invested more time into making this amazing story more interesting. It's sad for me to see a film with an amazing story and it feels so uninteresting for most of it. The film does hit the mark when it covers how Penny discovered that this horse was going to be a champion before it was even born, but this interest does last. Here's an interesting fact; when Secretariat died, an autopsy revealed that the horse's heart was double the normal size. Interesting right? Did I learn that from the film? No.

I am not calling "Secretariat" a bad film, it's just not done right. I respect Wallace for not making "Seabiscuit 2" but when the film is over I couldn't help but think that maybe he should've, or at least followed a pattern of storytelling that worked for this film, which is on the same subject.