Dream Horse

Name: Dream Horse
Genre: Biography, Drama, Sport, Comedy
Released: May 21, 2021
Duration: 113 min
Rating: 68
Cast: Alan David, Anthony O'Donnell, Asheq Akhtar, Carwyn Glyn, Damian Lewis

2021

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Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Ratings

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6.5	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Ratings

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Dream Horse

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Movie Details & Credits

Bleecker Street Media | Release Date: May 21, 2021 | PG

Starring: Alan David, Anthony O'Donnell, Asheq Akhtar, Carwyn Glyn, Damian Lewis, Darren Evans, Di Botcher, Joanna Page, Karl Johnson, Katherine Jenkins, Lynda Baron, Nicholas Farrell, Owen Teale, Peter Davison, Rhys ap William, Siân Phillips, Steffan Rhodri, Toni Collette

Movie Facts:

VOD release: June 11, 2021.

Summary: Dream Horse tells the inspiring true story of Dream Alliance, an unlikely race horse bred by small town Welsh bartender, Jan Vokes (Toni Collette). With very little money and no experience, Jan convinces her neighbors to chip in their meager earnings to help raise Dream in the hopes he can compete with the racing elites. The group’sDream Horse tells the inspiring true story of Dream Alliance, an unlikely race horse bred by small town Welsh bartender, Jan Vokes (Toni Collette). With very little money and no experience, Jan convinces her neighbors to chip in their meager earnings to help raise Dream in the hopes he can compete with the racing elites. The group’s investment pays off as Dream rises through the ranks with grit and determination and goes on to race in the Welsh Grand National showing the heart of a true champion.… Expand

Director: Euros Lyn

Genre(s): Biography, Drama, Sport, Comedy

Rating: PG

Runtime: 113 min

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Critic Reviews

Richard Roeper

May 19, 2021

We can see every plot point rounding the turn long before the finish line, but that’s OK, because we’re having a (dare I say it) jolly grand time every step of the way. Read full review

Peter Travers

May 21, 2021

Sure it’s hokey, but this fact-based crowdpleaser starring a terrific Toni Collette as a struggling Welsh villager who risks everything on a racehorse she breeds and raises is an underdog story that works like a charm. Read full review

Leah Greenblatt

May 20, 2021

A quirky bootstraps narrative of improbable small-town ambition and extremely regional accents designed not to rush its modest, affable charms. Read full review

Leslie Felperin

Feb 1, 2020

Like horse racing, filmmaking is a high-risk gamblers' game, but the team behind Dream Horse, the resulting dramatization of the Vokes' story, have surely bred a winner with this endearing, determinedly crowd-pleasing adaptation. Read full review

Tim Grierson

Feb 1, 2020

Director Euros Lyn overdoes the feel-good trappings, but it’s hard to deny the genuine sentiment that the movie stirs up. Read full review

Ty Burr

May 19, 2021

Dream Horse is a very nice movie, about very nice people, but nice is rarely enough, and thank goodness Toni Collette knows that. Read full review

Jenny Nulf

May 19, 2021

Inspiring true story? Perhaps not, but certainly a story that’s genuine enough to earn a few smiles. Read full review

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User Reviews

sergiopalma02

Nov 16, 2021

Toni Collette is always on her a-game. The supporting cast also deserves a ton of credit for bringing this story to life.

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MarkHReviews

May 30, 2021

In the early 2000s, Jan Vokes decided to breed and raise a racehorse, just to prove to herself that “things can change.” Her village of Cefn Fforest was in decline as the economy moved away from mining, the town’s primary industry. Her goal represented a worthy ambition and a worthyIn the early 2000s, Jan Vokes decided to breed and raise a racehorse, just to prove to herself that “things can change.” Her village of Cefn Fforest was in decline as the economy moved away from mining, the town’s primary industry. Her goal represented a worthy ambition and a worthy sentiment, just like this film.

“Dream Horse” is based on the true story of the steeplechase racer Dream Alliance. It’s inspired by the documentary “Dark Horse” (a much punchier title) that won a World Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Festival. At Jan’s prodding, the residents of her Welsh village decide to pool their resources (“just a tenner a week”) to fund the breeding and development of their racehorse. They have no experience. They make up for this deficit with baseless, boundless, endearing enthusiasm. (There’s something very charming about seeing this lot literally rubbing elbows with the social elite of the UK in the owner’s box.)

For a story about horseracing, there are sections of the film that are very slow-moving, although the irony appears unintended. As a sports story, this film ticks all the boxes. Initial promising success, check. A major setback creating an insurmountable obstacle to be overcome, check. You get the idea. By comparison, working on a paint-by-numbers picture is thrillingly unpredictable.

“Dream Horse” becomes much more interesting when it gallops into the eccentric lives of the townspeople. Jan Vokes is played by Toni Collette, who burst onto the scene in 1994’s “Muriel’s Wedding.” In the opening scene of “Muriel,” a bridal bouquet descends to the soundtrack of an incoming missile, excellent foreshadowing for Collette’s career. She’s been impactful ever since. It’s Collette who saves this film from sinking into an excessive sweetness that could threaten the theater’s concession stand sales. Unfortunately, though the other townspeople offer a wide range of potentially rich backstories, their story threads are never pursued. Damain Lewis (Howard Davis, a local accountant who actually knows something about horses) is given almost nothing interesting to do. But after watching him in forceful roles in “Homeland” and “Billions,” it’s fascinating to see Lewis inhabit a role totally devoid of menace.

The problem with this film is that it can’t decide what it really is. Because it never figures out whether it is a sports story or a character study, it gives a variety of interesting topics – the Welsh economy, the virtue of dreaming, whether people are too self-limiting, the concept of actual character development – only a glancing blow.

Dream Alliance earned a respectable 138,646 Great British pounds. At the end of the racehorse’s career, after paying for his upkeep, medical bills and other expenses, each member of the syndicate walked away with 1430 GBP (a little over $2000). After investing their time in this film, members of the audience may find their sense of enrichment was similarly modest.… Expand

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Mauro_Lanari

Oct 1, 2021

(Mauro Lanari)
Pet therapy in the sense of the Disneyan sports movies: community hippotherapy with the same limit of the mediocre cover version present in soundtrack, "This Is the Day" written by Matt Johnson in 1983 and rearranged by the Manic Street Preachers in 2011. This applies "just(Mauro Lanari)
Pet therapy in the sense of the Disneyan sports movies: community hippotherapy with the same limit of the mediocre cover version present in soundtrack, "This Is the Day" written by Matt Johnson in 1983 and rearranged by the Manic Street Preachers in 2011. This applies "just for one day", Bowie sang in "Heroes", and then, as one knows, even the dreams of horses die at dawn.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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