While of course he'll always be remembered for his remarkable work as an actor and as the mind behind the Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford has also slowly build up a solid reputation as a very good director despite his somewhat limited output (only 6 films in 20 years). Ever since his debut in 1980 with the highly successful "Ordinary People", Redford has demonstrated a natural talent at directing actors, as well as a good eye when choosing collaborators for his projects; two important skills that have earned him awards and recognition through the years. In his fifth film as a director, 1998's "The Horse Whisperer", Redford not only directs, but for the first time in his directorial career, he also plays one of the main characters in his movie. In "The Horse Whisperer" Redford is once again back in his element, as this is also the story of a troubled family, however, small problems arise that sadly diminish the power of the film.
Loosely based on Nick Evans's novel of the same name, "The Horse Whisperer" is the story of Annie MacLean (Kristin Scott Thomas) and her daughter Grace MacLean (Scarlett Johansson), who travel to Montana looking for the famous horse healer Tom Booker (Robert Redford), in order to ask him to cure their horse Pilgrim. The problem is that on a cold winter day, Grace and her best friend Judith (Kate Bosworth) were riding their horses when a terrible accident happened: a truck hit them, instantly killing Judith, and tragically hurting Grace and Pilgrim. Both horribly injured, horse and rider are taken to the Horse Whisperer hoping to recover not only their health, but also the will to live. Not only Grace and Pilgrim will try to find peace in the West, but Annie too will discover a new way of seeing life under the care of the Horse Whisperer.
Written by Eric Roth and Richard LaGravenese, "The Horse Whisperer" looks at first sight as another typical movie about a person's recovery after a traumatic event (in this case Grace's losing a leg and her best friend), however, more than dealing with the physical and psychological healing of the horse and it's rider, the movie deals with the emotional problems of a group of souls. The screenplay is not exactly faithful to the source novel, although it keeps the main story lines intact and despite the changes done the essence of the story is still well translated to screen. Some may disagree with me, but I think that the way Roth and LaGravenese build up the plot was considerably superior to Evan's book, and the toning down of the melodrama (although it's still a passionate story of romance) was for the most part beneficial for the story.
An excellent director of actors, Redford lets his cast to completely domain this character driven melodrama, creating a very natural and real portrait of human emotions. As in the book, Redford makes a nice analogy between the healing of horses and the healing of emotions (of course, with the advantage of a visual medium), although in a subtler, less melodramatic tone. This is very notorious in the way he lets his actors to use body language to express themselves, using silences, stares and face expressions as ways to communicate emotions. Still, even when the movie is certainly focused on the actors and their characters, Redford allows himself to give the film an extraordinary good look with Robert Richardson's brilliant cinematography, which captures the majestic landscapes of Montana in a very impressive and beautiful way.
Being a character driven story, the performances of the cast are essential for the success of the film, and in this case one could say that overall the cast did a good job in the movie. As Annie, Kristin Scott Thomas truly transmit the confusion of her character, torn between her life and the one represented by Tom Booker. As Tom, Redford is excellent, very effective in his role and completely becoming a character who expresses more with silence than with words. A young Scarlett Johansson appears as Grace, delivering a remarkable performance considering her young age. It's not a surprise that she went on to become a major actress as she grew up. In small but important roles, we find Sam Neill, Dianne Wiest and Chris Cooper as the main supporting cast of the movie, all giving an excellent performance despite their limited screen time.
If a movie is really well directed, has good performances and a nice script, what could be wrong about it? The answer this time is sadly so simple that it hurts: it's unnecessarily long. Pointing out this as a problem may sound like nitpicking, but it's long runtime truly damages the movie as it makes the film to drag a while, becoming tedious and boring at some point. I'm not saying that movies should not be long, what I'm saying is that in this particular case the long runtime feels unnecessary and out of place. I find the way Redford slowly develops his characters a notable feature of the movie, given that he allows us to really known them; however, I think that a better job of edition would have improved the final results a lot.
Overall, "The Horse Whisperer" is a very good movie on its own right, and while not being exactly faithful to the source novel, it keeps the whole spirit of the book intact. While the long runtime truly damages an otherwise good film, it's still a very good recommendation to those looking for a character driven love story without exaggerated melodrama. It seems to me that once again, Redford has made a classy film. 6/10
Loosely based on Nick Evans's novel of the same name, "The Horse Whisperer" is the story of Annie MacLean (Kristin Scott Thomas) and her daughter Grace MacLean (Scarlett Johansson), who travel to Montana looking for the famous horse healer Tom Booker (Robert Redford), in order to ask him to cure their horse Pilgrim. The problem is that on a cold winter day, Grace and her best friend Judith (Kate Bosworth) were riding their horses when a terrible accident happened: a truck hit them, instantly killing Judith, and tragically hurting Grace and Pilgrim. Both horribly injured, horse and rider are taken to the Horse Whisperer hoping to recover not only their health, but also the will to live. Not only Grace and Pilgrim will try to find peace in the West, but Annie too will discover a new way of seeing life under the care of the Horse Whisperer.
Written by Eric Roth and Richard LaGravenese, "The Horse Whisperer" looks at first sight as another typical movie about a person's recovery after a traumatic event (in this case Grace's losing a leg and her best friend), however, more than dealing with the physical and psychological healing of the horse and it's rider, the movie deals with the emotional problems of a group of souls. The screenplay is not exactly faithful to the source novel, although it keeps the main story lines intact and despite the changes done the essence of the story is still well translated to screen. Some may disagree with me, but I think that the way Roth and LaGravenese build up the plot was considerably superior to Evan's book, and the toning down of the melodrama (although it's still a passionate story of romance) was for the most part beneficial for the story.
An excellent director of actors, Redford lets his cast to completely domain this character driven melodrama, creating a very natural and real portrait of human emotions. As in the book, Redford makes a nice analogy between the healing of horses and the healing of emotions (of course, with the advantage of a visual medium), although in a subtler, less melodramatic tone. This is very notorious in the way he lets his actors to use body language to express themselves, using silences, stares and face expressions as ways to communicate emotions. Still, even when the movie is certainly focused on the actors and their characters, Redford allows himself to give the film an extraordinary good look with Robert Richardson's brilliant cinematography, which captures the majestic landscapes of Montana in a very impressive and beautiful way.
Being a character driven story, the performances of the cast are essential for the success of the film, and in this case one could say that overall the cast did a good job in the movie. As Annie, Kristin Scott Thomas truly transmit the confusion of her character, torn between her life and the one represented by Tom Booker. As Tom, Redford is excellent, very effective in his role and completely becoming a character who expresses more with silence than with words. A young Scarlett Johansson appears as Grace, delivering a remarkable performance considering her young age. It's not a surprise that she went on to become a major actress as she grew up. In small but important roles, we find Sam Neill, Dianne Wiest and Chris Cooper as the main supporting cast of the movie, all giving an excellent performance despite their limited screen time.
If a movie is really well directed, has good performances and a nice script, what could be wrong about it? The answer this time is sadly so simple that it hurts: it's unnecessarily long. Pointing out this as a problem may sound like nitpicking, but it's long runtime truly damages the movie as it makes the film to drag a while, becoming tedious and boring at some point. I'm not saying that movies should not be long, what I'm saying is that in this particular case the long runtime feels unnecessary and out of place. I find the way Redford slowly develops his characters a notable feature of the movie, given that he allows us to really known them; however, I think that a better job of edition would have improved the final results a lot.
Overall, "The Horse Whisperer" is a very good movie on its own right, and while not being exactly faithful to the source novel, it keeps the whole spirit of the book intact. While the long runtime truly damages an otherwise good film, it's still a very good recommendation to those looking for a character driven love story without exaggerated melodrama. It seems to me that once again, Redford has made a classy film. 6/10