A bit soggy.

Rating: 5/10 (26 May 2008)

I can understand "Sea Biscuit" being very popular in the United States, a country where the people are taught to be aware of the events in their history that have combined to turn the nation into what it is today.Memories of the Great Depression are still deeply etched into the psyche of Middle America and the country is rightly proud of the superhuman efforts that were made across the board to get it back on its feet.Any movie set in that era showing the "little guy" winning through against tremendous odds has a head start at the box office.Courage,resourcefulness and resilience were the qualities required both in life and in art.Fine movies have been made about the Depression," The Grapes of Wrath","Sullivan's Travels" and,more recently,"Paper Moon",that have skirted the edge of sentimentality,but "Sea Biscuit" slides over almost into bathos in my opinion. We Brits have a reputation for being a bit stuffy,repressed,uptight or whatever you like to call it,although you'd never think it if you'd ever been to a soccer match in this country,and national outpourings of emotion are not our thing despite the completely atypical frenzy over the death of Princess Diana in some quarters which,in any case,was largely media - induced.So perhaps it is not such a surprise that some of us find the emotions roused by the exploits of a racehorse and its entourage a little strange.The same incomprehension extends to the praise given to a perfectly adequate - but no more - movie of the same subject. Mr Cooper and Mr Bridges are fine,giving thoughtful and understated performances,but I found Mr Maguire unsettlingly like Huntz Hall of "The Bowery Boys",both in appearance and performance.which was an unfortunate distraction. Mr W.H.Macey was a positive dynamo of energy in what was otherwise fairly lethargically paced movie,his character wouldn't have been out of place in a "Batman" comic of the era. But the sentiment was laid on with a trowel,the metaphors blindingly obvious and repetitive and the semi - documentary style employed for parts of the movie disrupted the flow of the narrative. In the end I found I was rebelling against its manipulations in the same way I refuse to shed tears when 13 year old boys sing "Pie Jesu" on "Britain's Got Talent". I will cry when I want to - not when somebody else wants me to.