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105 MINUTES DreamWorks makes its bid for Disney territory with this sappy "inspired by" tale about a girl and her horse. Dakota Fanning, whose preternatural maturity gets creepier with every film, plays Cale, a plucky kid who wants nothing more than for her father to bring horses back to their struggling Kentucky farm. Dad is played by Kurt Russell with seasoned gruffness that’s designed to melt away into sweetness by the last act. When a filly is injured in a race, he buys her for a song; Cale wants to race the horse in the Breeders Cup, and along with a kooky assortment of sidekicks (Luis Guzmán, Kris Kristofferson), they try to beat the odds. Russell phones in his performance; Elizabeth Shue, playing Cale’s saintly mom, seems as unsure of why she’s in this film as we are. And writer/director John Gatins, reveling in the cheesiness, refuses to lighten the tone with anything resembling humor or self-awareness.
BY BROOKE HOLGERSON
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