When my wife and I saw the trailer for Dreamer we both thought the movie was gonna be more than it was....When do you dream? When you're asleep, and that was what many in the audience were, halfway through the movie! Others actually got up and left. Dreamer is a simple story about a family struggling to get by, Ben Crane (Kurt Russel) is a horse breeder who is is responsible for a promising thoroughbred named Sonador. Dakotta Fanning plays Cale Cole, it's clear from the begining Cale and Ben's relationship is damaged. Cale is eager to see her father's work at the track and the day she finally gets go go with Ben, a series of unforunate events take place. Sonador breaks her leg and should have been put down but because Cale is there Ben decides not to and that choice costs him his job. In retrospect I find it kinda funny that a movie about a race horse moved at a snails pace. There were a select few scenes that pulled on the audiences emotional chords but for the most part the performances seemed very diluted. I also made an amazing discovery that Kurt Russel was Kris Kristofferson's secret love child! I never realized how similar the two were. I loved Kristofferson in the Blade movies but he just seemed out of his element in this movie and so did Luis Guzman! He just seemed like he wandered on set and no one told him he was in the wrong movie. Don't get me wrong I like Guzman I think he's a great actor but he was seriously mis cast in my opinion. I wasn't too impressed with Kurt Russel performance either, whether it was his character or his acting there was very little memorable scenes with him. The ending is happy and will have you feeling good but this is a forgettable movie in the long run.
C+