Secretariat
The biopic sticky, romancing and ultimately indigestible is back with “Secretariat” which recalls that Walt Disney is still the gender specialist. Difficult not to love animals as lovable as horses, but probably not enough to go all the faster if there is no real issue film.
We must never abandon the race before it is finished. Taught this Penny Chenery (Diane Lane) to her children by showing them that a woman can take place in a man’s world. That’s why she decided to resume the stable family and train the horse to Secretariat that accesses the highest honors. Nothing is impossible, especially when you can count on a coach as unpredictable and colorful as Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich).
Times change … and some not. Before, excellent actors as Diane Lane and John Malkovich had plenty of choice to select the best projects available. Now many of these actors agree to play in almost anything, provided it is not too bad. It is there that Walt Disney has always had the mandate to educate the youth, showing them how to proceed without skimping on the beautiful moral. This is precisely the case of “Secretariat” that gives no latitude to its talented actors, confining roles not always attractive, compelling or even interesting.
Adapting a real fact is generally a good idea, but is this a valid reason to be so boring? Yet “The Social Network” had proved otherwise last week. Here is the classic use of prevailing, that feeling of walking right and never do the wave. To stay comfortably warm in the mold and to imitate what has already been done before. Everything is politicized in any way (the U.S. situation in the early 1970s, the struggle of women, macho environment in the world of sports, etc..) Is approached timidly, to focus on the exploits of calibrator.
The latter transcend the beautiful screen, there is nobody to make it run properly in the right place. After his regular “The Man in the Iron Mask” and “We Were Soldiers”, Randall Wallace to continue to prove that he is a decent craftsman, but not a great filmmaker. His staging is academic and routine, taking care to put music everywhere to give viewers a heartache. Not only does it spoil his plot that gleefully bathes in the syrup, but it does not really impress during the many races, which are however the more exciting moments of the lot. Instead of bringing the public in the heat of the moment, it remains in the background, continually returning to the cheering crowd.
A feature film as “Secretariat” has more to photocopy art. There is an important moment in history which is reproduced in a way conventional and dull. Yet the fact originals deserved something more stronger carrier, just as did Tom Hooper with European football in “The Damned United”. Horse lovers may wish to review the more interesting “Seabiscuit”.
