I went in knowing what the film was supposed to be about. From the trailers I expected that the film would be an attractive looking production. I tried to have no other expectations, threw on my suspension of disbelief cloak and just allowed the Steven Spielberg film to play itself out.
I didn't dislike the film but, at the same time, I didn't love it as much as I hoped I would. On the other hand, some of the others I saw the film with - females - appeared to love it. The film is based on a children's book about a horse (name of Joey); which does explain some of it. It's made in a very emotionally obvious way, seeming to actually reach out, straining to pluck your heart-strings from across the room. The characters were flat and one dimensional, in spite of an impressive cast of familiar faces. The characters seemed to be randomly injected into the story at odd intervals in ways to compliment the horse as it grows to maturity and goes off to join the army; and, oh, for the edification of other reviewers, the horse wasn't "conscripted" it was sold into servitude by it's owner to pay for his misdeeds.
The characters ran the gamut from the man who originally buys the horse, Peter Mullan as a hard drinking farmer type named Ted Narracott. In rather predictable fashion he is, of course, too addled and intoxicated to do anything of value with the horse he buys as much to spite David Thewlis (as Lyons) as for any other reason. That leaves an important task for his son to tackle. The son is played by Jeremy Irvine as Albert Narracott in a rather unimpressive way. If it weren't for some of the other actors the film would have been a much bigger disappointment. The list of those positives begins with Emily Watson as Rose Narracott, Mullan's wife and Irvine's mother. She was good, but her role seemed to be the dramatic equivalent of a straight-man, injecting necessary lines of dialog to prop up the story; the characterization of Mullan's alcoholism painted as much by her great performance as his.
Then there is the always watchable Tom Hiddleston as Captain Nicholls, the man who buys the animal into the service. Next came David Kross as Gunther, a German soldier who tries to do good by the horse but ends up in terminal trouble himself. Next was a kindly but bumbling grandfather; ably played the veteran actor Niels Arestrup, who takes a liking to the horse because his adorable granddaughter, played by Celine Buckens as Emilie.
Perhaps the best part of the film was a very impressive scene where the horse escapes from the Nordic side of the battle line but gets himself trapped in the battlefield's no-mans-land. I'll interject at this point that this film is visually stunning, with magnificent work behind the camera by the great Janusz Kaminski.. But he is given a visually rich canvas to witness. The sets and costuming are top notch as is the special effects, so all-important in a war film, and all of that was backed by a great musical score. The production values were so great in those scenes it made me sorry it wasn't a straightforward story involving the first world war.
Dragging the story to a place where it was positioned to get the animal back to the simple-minded Albert felt overly contrived. The one bright spot in that segment was Eddie Marsan as Sgt. Fry. He sealed the return of the horse to it's rightful owner, Albert and there were few dry eyes in the audience.
I was tempted to say it's a "chick flick", but in the end it felt much more like a vehicle aimed at tween girls.
By Bruce L. Jones http://webpages.charter.net/bruce.jones1/
I didn't dislike the film but, at the same time, I didn't love it as much as I hoped I would. On the other hand, some of the others I saw the film with - females - appeared to love it. The film is based on a children's book about a horse (name of Joey); which does explain some of it. It's made in a very emotionally obvious way, seeming to actually reach out, straining to pluck your heart-strings from across the room. The characters were flat and one dimensional, in spite of an impressive cast of familiar faces. The characters seemed to be randomly injected into the story at odd intervals in ways to compliment the horse as it grows to maturity and goes off to join the army; and, oh, for the edification of other reviewers, the horse wasn't "conscripted" it was sold into servitude by it's owner to pay for his misdeeds.
The characters ran the gamut from the man who originally buys the horse, Peter Mullan as a hard drinking farmer type named Ted Narracott. In rather predictable fashion he is, of course, too addled and intoxicated to do anything of value with the horse he buys as much to spite David Thewlis (as Lyons) as for any other reason. That leaves an important task for his son to tackle. The son is played by Jeremy Irvine as Albert Narracott in a rather unimpressive way. If it weren't for some of the other actors the film would have been a much bigger disappointment. The list of those positives begins with Emily Watson as Rose Narracott, Mullan's wife and Irvine's mother. She was good, but her role seemed to be the dramatic equivalent of a straight-man, injecting necessary lines of dialog to prop up the story; the characterization of Mullan's alcoholism painted as much by her great performance as his.
Then there is the always watchable Tom Hiddleston as Captain Nicholls, the man who buys the animal into the service. Next came David Kross as Gunther, a German soldier who tries to do good by the horse but ends up in terminal trouble himself. Next was a kindly but bumbling grandfather; ably played the veteran actor Niels Arestrup, who takes a liking to the horse because his adorable granddaughter, played by Celine Buckens as Emilie.
Perhaps the best part of the film was a very impressive scene where the horse escapes from the Nordic side of the battle line but gets himself trapped in the battlefield's no-mans-land. I'll interject at this point that this film is visually stunning, with magnificent work behind the camera by the great Janusz Kaminski.. But he is given a visually rich canvas to witness. The sets and costuming are top notch as is the special effects, so all-important in a war film, and all of that was backed by a great musical score. The production values were so great in those scenes it made me sorry it wasn't a straightforward story involving the first world war.
Dragging the story to a place where it was positioned to get the animal back to the simple-minded Albert felt overly contrived. The one bright spot in that segment was Eddie Marsan as Sgt. Fry. He sealed the return of the horse to it's rightful owner, Albert and there were few dry eyes in the audience.
I was tempted to say it's a "chick flick", but in the end it felt much more like a vehicle aimed at tween girls.
By Bruce L. Jones http://webpages.charter.net/bruce.jones1/