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Dream Horse

7/10

Stars: Toni Collette, Damian Lewis, Owen Teale, Peter Davison, Sian Phillips, Nicholas Farrell, Joanna Page, Karl Johnson, Lynda Baron, Katherine Jenkins

Director: Euros Lyn

Just about the feelgood movie to end them all, this is yet another true story, this time about a collective from the Welsh valleys who invested their all in the fortunes of a racehorse.

Prime mover in the venture is Jan (Collette), stuck on a supermarket till after early triumphs in pigeon-fancing and dog-showing, and now sole provider to her hard-snoring husband (Teale), jobless for a good while since leaving his last employment.

On a whim, Jan blows her savings on the purchase of a brood mare, which subsequently dies giving birth to a colt that Jan takes to a well-known trainer (Farrell) in the hope that he'll be good enough to enter races.

After a near disaster in his first competitive outing, when he starts facing the wrong way, the colt, named Dream Alliance in deference to Jan's syndicate of backers, starts consistently placing in his first four races, before moving up to jumps and winning the King Edward Cup.

Of course, however, there has to be a blip along the way, and it comes when the colt damages a tendon in a race; although saved by stem-cell treatment, it seems his racing days are over.

Impossible not to be swept along by all this, with Teale and Farrell especially good in support of stars Collette and Lewis. Racing sequences, it should be added, are excitingly done.

David Quinlan

USA 2020. UK Distributor: Warner Brothers (Film 4). Colour by Movietech.
107 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: PG.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 09 Sep 2021

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