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Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story
Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story Image
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Metascore
59 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 28 Critics What's this?

User Score
6.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 31 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: Dakota Fanning, Kurt Russell, Oded Fehr
  • Summary: Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story tells the story of a father who, for the love of his daughter, sacrifices almost everything to save the life of an injured racehorse and bring the promising filly back to her former glory. (DreamWorks)

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 28
  3. Negative: 0 out of 28
  1. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    88
    Thebest sports movies aren't really about sports. Dreamer has a few thundering horse races, but its finest moments are beautifully still ones, like the one in which a little girl peeks through a fence to give a lame filly a Popsicle.
  2. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Tasha Robinson
    60
    There are no surprises in Dreamer--except that for all its visible and unselfconscious schmaltz, it's actually pretty enjoyable.
  3. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    60
    Recycles just about every sentimental ploy and cliche from a raft of horse racing movies.

See all 28 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 21
  3. Negative: 6 out of 21
  1. DonnaB.
    10
    In a time of such violence, this is truly a welcomed movie. One based on unconditional love. Love for an injured animal that could have had its life cut short instead of being given the time, care and love to heal, allowing it to do what it was meant to do... run. A truly heartwarming movie.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. MarkB.
    5
    What's with that title, anyway? Besides its obvious structural ungainliness (I doubt that many theater employees bothered to put more than the first word on the marquee anyway), it places the movie's goings-on under immediate suspicion: even relatively unsophisticated patrons know that the difference between "based on a true story" and "inspired by a true story" is the difference between a waterproof watch and a water-resistant one. (And the final seconds of the closing credits bear this out.) This is an extremely tried-and-not-so-true story of a little girl who Beats Innumerable Odds to enter her beloved underdog horse in The Big Race; the plot details and outcome are crystal-clear from the first 5 minutes on to anyone over the age of 3 and/or who has seen more than twenty movies in his or her lifetime. (The only thing remotely resembling a surprise is how the young heroine manages to feed "Dreamer" so many cherry popsicles without giving him a brain freeze.) It's essentially harmless, I guess: the horse and the Kentucky scenery are lovely to look at; it's nice to see the adorable Dakota Fanning in a film that doesn't require her to be tormented either by aliens or Robert DeNiro; the rest of the cast performs adequately, even though Kurt Russell was more effective in the equally inspirational but far more imaginative 2004 hockey film Miracle and Elisabeth Shue needs to add a cheeseburger or two to her diet. Major debits include one of those all-encompassing, instruct-the-audience-exactly-how-to-feel music scores (by the usually capable John Debney, who also did The Passion of the Christ) that does nothing more than reiterate how numbingly predictable the rest of the movie is. Again, I suppose your family could do a lot worse, but with the cost of a night at the movies being what it is these days, why not just buy some Orville Redenbacher popcorn, a couple of 2-liter bottles of your favorite soft drink and a DVD of the Elizabeth Taylor-Mickey Rooney classic National Velvet and treat your kids to a REAL movie about horse racing?… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. Harriet
    3
    It may have been inspired by a true story but the story presented never happened. Sappy and bland.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 21 User Reviews

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