Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story DVD Review (Dakota Fanning) Empire Movies

DREAMER: INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY DVD REVIEW

Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story
(DreamWorks Home Entertainment)

The Movie

The Extras

Reviewed by

8/10

7/10

Liam

In Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, Dakota Fanning plays Cale Crane, the young daughter of a horseman (Kurt Russell) who comes to the rescue of a race horse named Sonador (Spanish for Dreamer) when the horse falls and is injured in a race. Not so quick to write the horse off and to put it down, the Cranes bring it back to their stables, nurse it back to health and miraculously get it back into racing shape to compete in the Breeder's Cup. It's the story of a girl and her horse, and more importantly a girl and her father.

I reviewed this movie when I initially saw it at last year's Toronto Film Festival so I'm not going to get into it too much here. Basically, I loved this movie. As a father with two daughters this movie pulled all the right strings. It captured the highs and lows of fatherhood and was also a great sports comeback movie to boot. Plus, it didn't hurt to have Dakota Fanning in the starring role. She's simply amazing in this movie.

There are a number of great special features on this DVD. For starters, we get "Who is Mariah's Storm?" which looks briefly at a real-life horse whose story is remarkably similar to the one portrayed in this movie. Next, "On the Set: Working with Thoroughbreds" talks with the director, actors and trainers about working with horses to prepare for the movie. This is followed by "Taking Care of Horses" which talks about the relationship between a girl and her horse and gives advice on grooming your horse. Next, in "Meet the Dreamer Dream Cast", director John Gatins talks about working with the great cast which, besides Fanning and Russell also includes Elisabeth Shue, Freddy Rodriguez, Luis Guzman, Kris Kristofferson, Oded Fehr and David Morse. This is followed by two deleted scenes (without commentary), a "Dreamer" music video featuring Bethany Dillon and a Trackside Live "Dreamer" TV Segment from TVG, America's horseracing network. The features are completed by an audio commentary with writer/director John Gatins. In my experience, when you mix a director with his or her dream project, the commentary is always worth a listen. This one is no different as he enthusiastically conveys a wealth of information mixed with some great behind-the-scene stories.

As I said, I love this story. I loved the acting. I just loved this movie. So much so, a few weeks ago I called a few horse farms in the area to try and get my own daughter lessons. (Unfortunately she's still a little young but you can bet I'll be making that phone call again next spring!) Watching this movie for the first time so many months ago was magic. There's nothing sad about it but it nearly brought tears to my eyes. Owning it now on DVD, I can't wait to share it with my own daughters and for them to feel that same magic.

Features
Who Is Mariah's Storm?, On the Set - Working with Thoroughbreds, Taking Care of Horses, Meet the Dreamer Dream Cast, Deleted Scenes, "Dreamer" Music Video, Audio Commentary

Video
Widescreen (2.40:1)

Audio
English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Subtitles
English, French, Spanish, Closed Captioned

Release Date
March 21, 2006

Rating
G

Length
106 mins.

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