VERY GOOD, BUT NOT GREAT

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2003)

I saw this movie today expecting big things because of the 7.7 it got on the website. I thought it was a good story to adapt to film, but was not done properly. The movie did not push the theme of the film enough, the theme of hope in hard times. It did touch on it in the narration, but was not thorough enough. I also thought the races were a little far-fetched (the jockeys talking during the races), but I know nothing about horses so maybe i'm wrong. The film tries too hard to become an epic. Probably more than half the film has an orchestra in the soundtrack, which gets annoying over time. Also, so much of the races were shot in slow-motion with the orchestra, instead of the race commentary. On the other hand, I thought the acting was very good, especially Bridges. The film had barely any references to gambling, which was good as this would have made the film more superficial. The movie probably goes for 10 mins too long in the first half, but is made up for in the second half. Overall, 8 out of 10 (very good, but not great)