Review: Secretariat

Review: Secretariat

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$

Rotten Tomatoes: 67%

Audience: 78%

I've resisted going to see this movie for about a month. I could only imagine how horribly it would be Disneymogrified. (Never forget Hunchback of Notre Dame.) But I was pleasantly surprised. It is, first and foremost, a great story. (I'm a sucker for horse movies.) And even though I have a vivid memory of watching the jaw-dropping Belmont Stakes in 1973 on TV, the depiction of the race still sent chills running down my spine.

My only criticism is that Diane Lane is just a bit short of being the steel magnolia I would expect in Penny Chenery. Still, her performance is more than adequate. John Malkovich has been accused by some critics of overplaying the part of Lucien Laurin, Secretariat's trainer. Au contraire, he's truly "a character"; he only needs a few lessons in pronouncing French. My one quibble with the film is that the "Where are they now?" blurbs at the end of the movie were a bit Disneyfied in that, children that we are, we're not told that Chenery and her husband John Tweedy divorced in 1973, the year Secretariat won the Triple Crown. Even though I did not know this fact when I was watching the film, the conflict in the marriage was obvious in the movie. We're adults. We would have survived a bittersweet ending.

Note: The picture above is of the real "Big Red," not the very fine horse who played him in the film. Can't find his credit. Now, he deserves a best supporting actor nod!

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price

$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it