Ralph's Movie Reviews: SECRETARIAT

Saturday, October 9, 2010

SECRETARIAT

Sports drama
Based on a true story

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Diane Lane: housewife and mother Penny Tweedy
Dylan Walsh: her lawyer husband Jack
Dylan Baker: Penny’s brother Hollis, a Harvard professor of Economics
Scott Glenn: Penny’s father Chris Chenery, owner of Meadow Stables
Margo Martindale: Miss Hamm, Mr. Chenery’s Personal Assistant
James Cromwell: Ogden Phipps, owner of Wheatley Stables
Fred Thompson: Bull Hancock, owner of Claiborne Farms
Nelsan Ellis: Eddie Sweat, Horse Groom
John Malkovich: veteran horse trainer Lucien Laurin
Otto Thorwarth: jockey Ronnie Turcotte
Nestor Serrano: Pancho Martin, owner of Secretariat's chief nemesis Sham

REVIEW
This unhurried telling of a Denver housewife who takes over her father’s horse farm and how her determination led to a notable sports triumph has the likeness of a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie: the highest production values, excellent acting for the most part and great attention to detail. In addition, it feels authentic.

Since not everyone is that well acquainted with the sport of horse racing, the timely expository material is welcome so we can all understand and appreciate what unfolds on the screen.

The producers have wisely kept the race sequences to a minimum since a camera following a group of horses running around an oval track can quickly become very boring. Instead using different camera angles, tight close-ups and crisp editing they have captured the excitement without overdoing it.

CLASSIFICATION

for brief mild language, very brief.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Miss Hamm is called into the room with others and stands near the threshold. As she is about to leave the camera angle changes to show the entire group but somehow she has magically moved in by 5 or 6 steps.

No comments:

Post a Comment

my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.