Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story

It was a few weeks ago that I reviewed a Disney in Sports movie and gave it high praise. These guys really know what they're doing when they get in the family and competition business, and now that I'm reviewing the latest from Dakota Fanning, Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, I'm going to repeat the high praise.

Ah, Dakota Fanning, there's no enough I can say about her, and since I've said enough already in previous reviews, I'll just say here that she is a marvel, and will be the biggest star in the world one day. I mean, she kind of already is.
And that's why I was shocked to see Kurt Russell top billing the movie. The story is about both of them really, kind of like Seabiscuit being about Toby Maguire and Jeff Bridges.
And that's not the only similarity Dreamer has with Seabiscuit. Both of them are about a hurt racing horse who's healed and thanks to the love of her owners, gets better, starts racing again and goes to win the big championship.

But the similarities are just those, as the movie is more about the relationship between Cale (Dakota), her father Ben (Russell) and her grandfather, Ben's father Pop Crane (Kris Kristofferson). Cale adores her father and wants to emulate her father in everything, but he doesn't want her to grow up around horses, which explains why they don't have even one horse in their barn. Cale has a great relationship with her grandpa though, who teaches her about horses and the competitions. She knows it all, though Ben is not so happy about it. He hasn't spoken to his dad for months, still hurt for something that happened years ago that made Ben stop training horses for himself, and so now he just works training horses for David Morse's Palmer, a rich man managing the horses of an Arabic Prince.
The name of their star horse is Sonya (short for Sonador which in English means the movie's title), and she gets hurt before their big race. Ben wants to stop her from racing, but Palmer pushes it and she ends up racing, falling on the floor and breaking her leg.
She's to put down Palmer says but Ben rescues her for Cale, quitting his job and exchanging some money Palmer owed him for the very hurt Sonya.

She'll race again of course, but what's great is to see the family work together for it, helped by Luis Guzman and Freddy Rodriguez, who play Sonya's trainer and jockey respectively, and go to work with the Cranes when they also lose their jobs when Ben quits on Palmer. There's also Elizabeth Shue who plays Kurt's wife and Cale's mom Lily.
With a very good cinematography and a great score, writer John Gatins' directorial debut Dreamer is another winner for Disney, a story of love and hope, led by that magical human being that is Dakota Fanning. Disney & Dakota, keep them coming please.