Mr. Movie: ‘Dream Horse’ wins by a nose

“Dream Horse” is based on the true story of a group of people in Wales who each invested 10 Pounds a week to raise and race a thoroughbred. A couple of decades ago, the horse, Dream Alliance, went on to win a bunch of important races.

We’re now at the temptation to put some unbridled wordplay into this review. Saddled with a subject like horses and horse racing, I find it — um — irresistible. My mind is racing as I horse around with this word and that.

Enough. Stable it.

Toni Collette stars as Jan Vokes. She’s a barmaid. One night Vokes hears a guy bragging about horses and horse racing. Intrigued, Vokes does her research, thinks investing in a race horse is doable, and convinces her husband, Brian to pony up (sorry) some money to buy a mare to breed.

The braggart is played by Primetime Emmy winner, Damian Lewis (King Henry III in 2015’s, “Wolf Hall”). He and others in the village pitch in money to form a syndicate. They named their colt, Dream Alliance.

You may not have heard the whole story so I won’t go any farther. Let’s just say, the horse does pretty well, rocked the racing world and got the syndicate a lot of positive attention. Millionaires and billionaires and people loaded with money raise and race horses.

Poor people from a small town in Wales do not.

While a lot of the story is accurate, the key word in the first sentence is “based.” A creative license was — no doubt — taken by writer, Neil McKay. Though he changed situations a little bit, the bones of McKay’s story are accurate. There are some true, and dramatic twists in the story.

By the way, when the credits roll, and you meet some of the real people in the syndicate, you’ll be shocked by some of the income information.

An Uber-energetic Collette leads a cast of relative unknowns in this sometimes funny, and almost can’t resist, feel-good movie. Collette — lit up like a positive candle — ping-pongs through a plot supported by the usual cast of quirky characters inhabiting such films.

There is Lewis’ loser tax accountant, the dotty old lady, a not-so-tender bar tender, the lady from the butcher shop, an old business man who wears lucky horse shoe socks, a young guy who smiles a lot but does little else, a cranky bartender, a goofy, old drunken man who tosses off the film’s funniest lines, and some others.

You get the picture.

The character exaggeration almost undoes the movie. McKay (“Hot Money,” the original screenplay for 2008’s, “Mad Money”) works too hard trying to give every character something funny, or dramatic, or important to say. The lines, scenes and events from the beginning to the feel-good ending, flow like what you’d see in a British TV sitcom.

It gives the movie a clunky, chunky feel.

While McKay’s writing doesn’t work all that well, director Euros Lyn — who directed a lot of “Dr. Who,” “Torchwood” and “Last Tango in Halifax” episodes — manages to hold things together and keep the movie moving to the predictable finish line.

And “Dream Horse” is terribly predictable.

I took almost a volume of notes about what’s wrong with the movie. But does it really matter? These days we’re all looking for something to make us feel better. We’re all still dealing with COVID’s leftovers, political chaos in our country and around the world, disasters here and disasters there, and our own — sometimes chaotic — lives.

So a story about people bonding for the purpose of improving each other’s lives is good to see. A laugh or two along the way doesn’t hurt either. When the credits roll, this movie feels good.

In my book, “Dream Horse” is something you can bet on. It wins the day and does so by a nose.

▪ Rated PG-13 for mature themes. It’s playing at the Fairchild Cinemas Kennewick 10, the Queensgate 12 and at the Fairchild Pasco theater.

▪ Rating: 4 out of 5

This story was originally published May 20, 2021 at 6:52 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie: ‘Dream Horse’ wins by a nose."