Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story (2005)

Image credit: DREAMER: Joe Lederer

THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? Inspired by a true story, just not necessarily a good story

One more feel-great sports movie with a teen-poetry title and Kurt Russell will have himself a trilogy. A year after the hockey fable Miracle, the actor stars in Dreamer, a horse-race drama whose complete handle is Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, inelegantly disarming any criticism of the movie's believability from the get-go. It's the tale of a lame filly saved from death and turned into a champion by a trainer (Russell) and his daughter (old pro Dakota Fanning). That part's okay; the final race even gets you going a bit. But Miracle was better because there, Russell's character made sense. Here, for no real reason, he acts aloof around his kid, and the forced family dynamics just drag the movie down.