BEFORE: From elephant training to horse training. Linking from "Water for Elephants", Robert Pattinson was also in a film called "Remember Me" with Chris Cooper (last seen in "The Muppets").
It's time for the Academy Awards tonight, and I didn't see nearly as many of the films as I thought I should - I've only seen two of the nominees for Best Picture, plus one of the nominees for Best Animated Feature. Which means I've got more work to do - but still, it's more of the nominees than I'd seen before last year's Oscars.
THE PLOT: The mother of a severely traumatized daughter enlists the aid of a unique horse trainer to help the girl's equally injured horse.
AFTER: I can't believe there are still Robert Redford films I haven't seen - my ex made me watch most of them, she had a thing for Redford, which turned out to be quite ironic. But this one came out in 1998 and we parted ways in 1996, so that explains that. At this point, the only major Redford films I haven't seen are probably "Havana", "The Great Gatsby", and "The Clearing" (that last one is on my list, though).
While I'm feeling nostalgic, it occurs to me that I owe part of my career to Redford - in the early 90's I was working at a little production company in downtown Manhattan, but looking for other work, and an intern I worked with took a job working for Robert Redford. I subbed in for her on a freelance gig stuffing envelopes, and that led to a job I've been working at for 20 years.
Lots of love triangles this week, it's almost a running theme. Here we've got an uptight controlling NYC magazine editor who falls for the opposite - a laid-back rancher and horse trainer. While the romance isn't the focus of the picture, it takes a back seat to the rehab of the horse and the daughter, it fits in as sort of an unintended part of the process. It's the whole family that's been fractured by an accident, and the mother needs to repair her relationship with her daughter.
Or maybe she has to form one, a real one, for the first time. She comes across as one of those rich, snobby types who demand that everything be perfect, including their children, because a perfect child would reflect back on her as a perfect mother. But she needs to realize that perfection is impossible, and perhaps she's not perfect, nor is her marriage.
It's a long drive from NYC to Montana, and the film makes sure that we feel it. It's an hour into the film before the main characters all meet. Similarly, the rehabilitation of an inured horse is a long, slow process, and that really comes through. With a running time of nearly three hours, I'm thinking there must have been some more editing that could have been done.
I also wish the horse-training methods could have been explained a little better - most of it was sort of left as a mystery, and without some explanation there feels like there's a fine line between training and animal abuse. "Water for Elephants" drew a more distinct line between the two.
Still, it's a solid story, with an awareness that a love triangle needs to be resolved somehow, even though it may not go the way you think or the way you prefer.
Also starring Kristin Scott Thomas (last seen in "Nowhere Boy"), Scarlett Johansson (last seen in "Girl With a Pearl Earring"), Sam Neill (last heard in "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole"), Dianne Wiest (last seen in "Dan in Real Life"), Cherry Jones, with a cameo from Kate Bosworth.
RATING: 6 out of 10 branding irons
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