Dream Horse – A Depressingly Unoriginal Inspirational Drama

Dream Horse is one of those films that is meant to be difficult to hate. It tells the feel good story of the Dream Alliance racehorse, which was purchased by a syndicate based in a working class Welsh town. The horse went on to unexpectedly win several races and caused a sensation in Wales, where many celebrated the phenomenon of ordinary folks earning money from an industry that is notorious for its gatekeeping. Screenwriter Neil McKay adapts this real-life story to the screen as he recenters it around a woman named Janet Vokes (Collette), the first person from the village to take an interest in horse racing. It aims to provide joy and uplift to audience members who might feel like life has passed them by. It implies that hope can never be truly lost and people always have the ability to make the most of the opportunities that they are given. If one is extremely softhearted, it might work on them. If they have a cynical bone in their body, it will have them rolling their eyes within minutes. 

It fails to do anything new, employing a well-worn formula whose individual parts are not solid enough to make the film stand out. Many complain about producers being unwilling to fund films that are based on an existing intellectual property, a comic book, or a film from the mid-1980s that wasn’t even that popular when it was first released. We should also be turning our attention towards a slightly more innocuous breed of remakes. Dream Horse isn’t officially based on a Glenda Jackson vehicle from 1977, but it might as well be. The film fits into the inspirational sports genre and closely resembles countless films that tell very similar tales. It presents as innocuous and difficult to dislike, because it is so well-intentioned, but consider the fact that producers invested $6.4 million into making something that did absolutely nothing to push the medium of cinema forward. Even if they had invested this money into an edgy arthouse flick that didn’t quite live up to its potential, it would have at least been more exciting than what we ended up with. 

There is a stunning lack of ambition on display here. Almost everybody is phoning it as this film is not likely to pop up as one of the most important entries in any of their resumes. We should be thankful for the fact that Collette will, hopefully, move on to bigger and better things. If this was just a pay check role for her, it makes sense. She can pocket the cash that she earned from trudging her way through this, and use it to pay the bills while she appears in something along the lines of Velvet Goldmine. That being said, something positive could come out of this, despite the fact that she is wasted in a role that asks very little of her. 

In a just society, there should not be so many cookie cutter feel-good dramas that follow unsatisfying formulas. Yes, they are less offensive than Zack Snyder superhero films that smuggle Randian ideology into scenes that are centered around shots of Gal Gadot’s bottom. Still, it shouldn’t be so easy for filmmakers to get away with producing such lifeless, dull entertainment. Audiences should be able to expect a little more excitement out of movies that they watch to waste time on a Sunday afternoon. They shouldn’t expect to see Brief Encounter every time they enter the theatre, but when they’re paying $25 a pop, they deserve something that rises to the level of What Happens in Vegas. 

In the end, Dream Horse is a film that won’t leave viewers thinking about anything, or pondering the state of their own lives as they will forget about it soon after its credits roll. That shouldn’t be the way that cinema works. 

still courtesy of MK2 MILE END

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Zita Short

I am passionate about screwball comedies from the 1930s and certain actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood. I’ll aim to review new Netflix releases and write features, so expect a lot of romantic comedies and cult favourites.