Deliciously nostalgic and, because of the sweeping arc of the story, necessarily episodic.

Rating: Null/10 (20 December 2003)

Deliciously nostalgic and, because of the sweeping arc of the story, necessarily episodic, Seabiscuit is a hopeful remembrance of a nearly hopeless time. Set in the Great Depression, Seabiscuit weaves an almost magical tale of how a horse, thought to be worthless, found its true worth, and in so doing, inspired the men around him to do the same.
It is no coincidence that the movie bears a striking similarity in theme, mode and tone to The Natural. The scores of both movies were done by the incomparable Randy Newman. There's even a specific composition that appears in its entirety in both movies. It would be easy to draw the extended comparison that The Natural, with its baseball team called The Knights, was really a retelling of the Arthurian legend, complete with a magical "sword", and so is Seabiscuit. Why not? The knights in this movie ride on mighty steeds and bear their colors like armor. They even joust once in a while on the tracks, so this really is a tale of knights and knaves, of horses and armor, and of triumph in the face of failure.
Tobey Maguire is quite simply the finest actor of his age, a Stradivarius among rented band instruments with a tone that can only be coaxed out by the finest maestro. Who better to play this instrument than Gary Ross? He directed and wrote Maquire's beautiful performance in Pleasantville, and also gave us Tom Hanks in Big, directed of course by Penny Marshall, the most underestimated director in Hollywood.
Chris Cooper and Jeff Bridges deliver beautiful standout performances, and we expect nothing less of them. Cooper has become one of the best character actors in the business. Also present is perhaps Cooper's only peer in the realm of character acting, William H. Macy, who, coincidentally, also worked with Maguire and Ross in Pleasantville. Paging Six Degrees.

In the end, this movie isn't quite the movie that either The Natural or Pleasantville is, but it is nuanced and inspiring and gives us a fine chance to see Maguire work.