Good adaptation of book

Rating: 8/10 (5 August 2003)

I nearly always like the book better than the movie, and this was no exception. The story of the author and her fight with disease also is deserving of an extra on the DVD. All that said, the movie stood well on its own. The cinematography was great, but those jockey-mounted cameras or whatever they were sure made for some jerky race scenes. Having been one of those pre-teen girls that were crazy about horses, I recognized that statue of Seabiscuit in the paddock scenes, and kept wondering why they didn't CGI it out. I found that distracting. When I heard Tobey M. was cast as Red Pollard, my reaction was "What the. . . .", so I was pleasantly surprised that he did such a good job. Casting the younger version of Red with the boy from "Will and Grace" seemed unnecessary. He did just fine, but really didn't look much like the older version of the character. Seems some makeup and lighting tricks on Tobey M. would have been more seamless. Jeff Bridges did seem a bit "Tucker-like" in this, but portrayed his character well. There was quite a bit missing that was in the book, but I guess time limits make that inevitable. Hope the DVD includes some of the obviously deleted scenes.