AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks
UnowPriceless hyped garbage
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Amy Adler Dana (Carol Roscoe) was an aspiring ballet dancer who got seriously hurt, ending her dream of appearing on stage. Now, she teaches ballet to an assortment of beginning students in Seattle and lives in a lower rent apartment above a drugstore. There is no man in her life, either. One day, her adult brother calls and summons her home to their childhood farm on Orcas Island, a ferry ride from the Wet City. She goes. Awaiting her are a bevy of problems. Her father is developing Alzheimers, although he has many moments of clarity. Then, her stubborn mother has "credit-carded" the purchase of a beautiful but wild horse she means to tame enough to sell for bigger bucks. So far, the equine is jumpy. Worst of all, the farm is in foreclosure, due to dwindling profits from the orchard and an assortment of other misfortunes. Can Dana help save the family farm? Will she get on a horse, as she swore never to do again, to help tame the animal to showcase for the much-needed money? First, although this film has few stars, it is quite well done. The family dynamics is interesting, to say the least, when it includes a child with autism, a grandpa with Alzheimers, and a sister-in-law who has been involved with both brothers, at various times. One could almost say there are two many problems for one film. On the plus side, the scenery on Orcas Island is terrific, a more rustic but still wildly beautiful than the one shown in the film Lucky Seven, which was also set on Orcas. Also, the flick's horses are truly lovely, too, but there is not an abundance of screen time devoted to them. Horse fans, therefore, may be somewhat disappointed. Nevertheless, those seeking something quieter and more thoughtful than the usual Tinseltown fare will be rewarded when bringing this one home.
lynnealarson The real reason I purchased this movie was because of its setting - in the San Juan Islands and east of Seattle. I admit to being homesick! This is not really a "horse" movie and really doesn't spend any time on dressage. It is, rather, a story of family interaction. I thought, unlike other reviewers, that the cast did pretty well with the sketchy material they were given. It didn't bother me that everyone was "unlovable" - I thought they were rather interesting as they were. They reminded me a bit of my family, for good or bad. However, the pace of the movie was very slow, and I felt we could have gotten to know the characters a lot better in 2 hours.
rnussle I really found nothing to like about the movie. We had better actors in my high school drama class. I am not a horse person per se, however I do love horses and ride whenever I have the opportunity. I suppose this flick was meant to be a paean to our equine friends, however this clumsily handled production left me so cold I wouldn't have been bothered if the herd was sent to the glue factory. And the beginning with the ballet class, what was that all about? The actress playing the role of Dana the ballet instructor was not credible as she had neither the carriage nor grace of someone who studied ballet past third grade. In all honesty I popped out the DVD halfway through and was resentful that I paid $1.20 to rent it.
Astanax Knight My wife loves Friesian horses and dressage competition. So I went to a particular rental kiosk that seems to be so popular and found this movie for rent. The official plot was that a Ballet teacher from Seattle goes to Orcas Island in Washington State to win a dressage competition with a Friesian horse. This is supposed to save the farm, and I rented the movie believing that this was the whole basis of the film.The characters in the beginning were cold, and the only likable character was the father with dementia. There was a lot of drama in the beginning with family members not talking to each other. I didn't mind a little back story, but got this solely as a horse movie. It wasn't that. Instead, there were a lot of out of place songs with out of place stock footage of nature scenes and a painfully slow storyline that dealt more with family issues than about a Friesian horse plot that takes up only a fourth of the movie's plot.The plot centers more around a father whom has dementia and his grown kids come to their farm to find out that he owes back taxes for his wife's father's farm. The wife solely believes that the "wild Friesian" that she bought could be trained and rode in the dressage competition, while the dementia suffering husband believes he can save the farm with his invention that he works on throughout most of the movie. That plot about the Friesian horse was short lived, but if I heard right, the name of the farm was "Dark Horse Farms" during the announcing of the Ballet teacher.This is not a particularly heart warming story. The plot ends at the family moving away from their farm, but at the end, as the horses and farm are sold, the family has mended broken ties. In seeing the scene of the husband with dementia kissing and loving his wife near the end, whom they talked about their marriage was "for better or worse", and about how they would never leave each other, I found it touching the heart of my wife and myself, whom mirror that husband and wife in the story. That was about the only heartwarming thing in the entire movie.
