Seabiscuit (2003) **

Rating: 5/10 (27 January 2013)

An overrated and overlong compilation of fluff about people following their dreams and coming out on top during the despairing days of the Depression. The non-actor Tobey Maguire is ineffective in making us feel anything for his lead character named Red, who is forsaken by his parents and tries to make it in the world by becoming a jockey. Red becomes fond of a lazy and temperamental horse called Seabiscuit, and then works to tame him and turn him into a winning racing stallion. Jeff Bridges fares a little better as a salesman who goes from bicycles to cars to placing stock in Seabiscuit. His second wife is played by Elizabeth Banks, who takes the prize of being the actor who can't convince me she isn't actually from the 21st century (there always seems to be at least one in these things). Chris Cooper plays the always-sunken trainer, whose tired and down trodden persona grates on me after awhile. For such an emotional subject, I found that I was not interested in any of these characters. I place that flaw at the feet of the actors and director Gary Ross.
The first 45 minutes or more are haphazardly shot and edited, so it's difficult to keep up with what's transpiring, as many people and situations are flashed about at frantic pace to establish some kind of set-up. I was just hoping a moment would come where we'd settle down and linger with the characters, or at least have one protracted sequence where we could relax and take it in. The sappiness of the story is pounded into our heads through a climactic feel-good score by Randy Newman, inappropriately placed just about everywhere instead of saved for the climax. ** out of ****