Nice!

Rating: Null/10 (18 July 2003)

Seabiscuit is based on a true story - always a dubious start since you never really know where fact stops and fiction takes over. This is a NICE film really, NICE in all sorts of ways; cinematically it's pleasing on the eye, the attention to detail is gratifying, the acting is fair, the story has a NICE happy ending. NICE, innocent, good clean family fun.

I think that's what did it for me really. The characters played by Jeff Bridges, Elizabeth Banks, Chris Cooper and Tobey McGuire are all so benevolent and kind to each other it's really not that believable, considering the knocks some of them have had on the way up and how different their backgrounds have been.
The story revolves around the impulsive investment by millionaire car manufacturer Charles Howard (Bridges) of a very ruined and battle-scarred young racehorse and his bid to make the horse a star. Cue Tobey McGuire, equally ruined and battle-scarred as budding jockey desperate to prove himself, just like the horse, funnily enough. Uncanny.
The story is set against the backdrop of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the subsequent Depression, which is admittedly beautifully illustrated with grainy monochrome photographs of soup kitchens, the American migration west, the Dustbowl phenomenon, desperate-looking 'Hoovervilles' and a sensitive voiceover. As a history lesson it's impeccable, but the over-emphasized metaphor of Seabiscuit representing the American people struggling to the top in the face of overwhelming odds is clunky in the extreme, it's just so naff. Maybe that's how Seabiscuit's fortune was viewed at the time but we are a much more cynical audience 70 years later and a more subtle approach would have won more people over.
William H Macy's cameo role as eccentric racing radio jock complete with in-house sound effects (coconut shells, gongs, xylophone etc) is highly entertaining and is the film's saving grace during its more schmaltzy moments. He steals the show.
The other key point is that horseracing, however you look at it, is far from a mainstream sport and as a topic for a film it will have limited appeal. The characters come from a variety of hard-bitten backgrounds - Tom Smith (Cooper)for example, a mustang breaker from the wild west, monosyllabic, living rough, who has a remarkable affinity with horses. Red Pollard (McGuire), prodigious rider abandoned as a child by his destitute parents - whom we fully expect to see cheering him on at some point in the future, but they never appear again. Then there's Charles Howard - automobile tycoon - loses his son in a car accident; what a fascinating start, but all we see is his wife leaving and a remarriage to a beauitiful young girl. Even their wedding day is literally one scene lasting a few seconds. The film is crying out for more character development, and they have so much to offer. The camera spends more time gazing into the vacant eyes of the horse than it ever does examining the enormous potential of the characters around it, which is a shame and this will be a huge disappointment to anyone who isn't a horse nut.
However, the action around the race track is filmed brilliantly, and the sound excellent. It's exciting to watch even if you'd be happier watching championship darts over horseracing, and makes the most of one of the world's duller sports. There are some tense, rather laboured moments but after the first 20 minutes we all know we'll sleep soundly after these credits have rolled, they aren't really too bothersome.
Yes it's a true story, but not many people know about it, so did it have to be so predictable? But then the film is American owned, directed, funded and produced so no loose threads here, no interpreting the ending over coffee and cake afterwards, no moments of doubt or uncertainty; it romps home to the finish line with everyone a winner, the economy restored, the future secure, the skies blue, the sun shining, cheers from the ecstatic grandstand and, like countless other feelgood movies, the narrator pressing home the tired old chestnut of believing in oneself. How very NICE.