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Disney has a strong track record with successful, stand on your feet and cheer sports dramas — celebrating indomitable human spirit and athletic valor in MIRACLE, THE ROOKIE and INVINCIBLE to name a few — and director Randall Wallace with scribe Mike Rich release another winner this Friday with SECRETARIAT. This stirring, family friendly drama enlivens the history of horse racing's most famous champion by telling the engaging story of Secretariat's unlikely owner, a Denver housewife who takes over her father's farm and takes on the old boy network of breeding and racing thoroughbreds in high-stakes competition. Even if you know the championship record of this horse, you don't know the story of the woman and her family who turned an unwanted foal into an unbeatable hero. At the start of the 1970s, the Virginia stud farm Meadow Stables faces hard times and mounting bills as owner Chris Chenery (Scott Glenn) staves off financial and physical collapse. When his wife dies and his health fails, his daughter Penny Chenery (Diane Lane) puts her life as a wife and mother on hold to tend to her father and his struggling business. When Penny must take on all the farm's responsibilities, she faces as many fiscal challenges as she does the doubts and prejudices against a housewife with no practical horse breeding experience entering such a male-dominated world. After firing the corrupt trainer trying to sell off her father's best horses, Penny's first crucial decision is choosing which foal sired by Bold Ruler she will choose in a traditional coin toss deal with rival breeder Ogden Phipps (James Cromwell). Phipps and general consensus would pick the foal with the highest profile pedigree, and winning the toss he does, leaving Penny with her secret favorite, the horse to be known as Big Red. Fighting the odds against raising Big Red to be a winner and battling the chauvinism prevalent in the racing industry, Penny hires the outspoke and supposedly past-his-prime trainer Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich) to help her create the champion horse that will save her family's farm and validate her father's legacy.
As noted, with Secretariat's history already writ large in the annals of horse racing and sports history, the magic of this film is not found at the finish line but running the course with Penny and her extended family bucking the odds of those misogynistic competitors and detractors determined to make her a failure for invading their turf. While it took five horses to portray the chestnut thoroughbred Secretariat, Diane Lane shows plenty of heart over the entire distance, carrying the story in a strong, sympathetic performance which humanizes her inner conflicts as emotionally as the doubts and triumphs she feels at the track. Malkovich invests plenty of comic, curmudgeonly frustration and professional heartache as the French-Canadian trainer blamed for a string of losing racers before meeting Penny Chenery and her miracle steed. The role isn't necessarily a stretch for Malkovich, though his accent might be at moments, but through Laurin he loosens up the film with a blend of levity and identifiable fear of failure. Ellis's character isn't given nearly enough business on screen to deepen Eddie Sweat to meet the actor's potential, but he suffices in his grooming role in a film that at times is chock (over)full of characters. On the other hand, Martindale lead the supporting pack as Miss Ham who, with Penny, provide the undeniable heart of the film. Behind the scenes kudos to cinematographer Dean Semler for his pulse pounding on-the-track jockey and horse POV photography, becalmed by moments of quiet wonder and visual drama as Big Red transforms into the champion he's destined to be. Similarly Nick Glennie-Smith merits praise for a rousing, turbulent and triumphant original score which guides but never attempts to outpace the story or racing action. SECRETARIAT avoids succumbing to the cliched trappings of a "feel good film" while delivering all the best, audience-pleasing attributes such a description implies. FilmEdge saw this film before the current advertising and buzz had built up, and was surprised to witness the audience actually applauding as the horse races past finish lines, building his unprecedented championship career — despite the fact that these races had been won thirty years ago. Moviegoers love getting caught up in the difficult journey of an athlete or a dreamer surmounting all obstacles to win a chance at achieving greatness, and SECRETARIAT delivers the goods at a record pace. Perhaps going against type a bit, the film will likely appeal to female audiences with its strong protagonist in Lane, but bring the whole family for a thrilling, joyous experience together to celebrate the spirit of unyielding championship that remains as timeless and tireless as ever.
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Torn between turning Big Red into the champion that will eventually be Secretariat takes a personal toll on Penny as her husband (Dylan Walsh) wants her to resume her traditional housewife role with their family, while her brother (Dylan Baker) repeatedly urges her to sell off the farm's horses and assets to pay off the family debts. Sticking steadfast to her father's dream and her own growing ambition to prove herself, Penny gains support through the farm's groom Eddie Sweat (TRUE BLOOD's Nelsan Ellis) and her father's loyal assistant Miss Ham (the wonderful Margo Martindale). Together with their tough but injury-recovering jockey Ron Turcotte (real-life rider Otto Thorwarth), this quartet of undaunted dreamers train and race the 1973 Kentucky Derby victor and the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years.
